Panic
by DragonsWillFly
Summary: Takes place a few weeks after episode, 'Heart Breakers, Money Makers'. When a routine call turns into anything but routine, will the officers of 15 Division be able to solve it? Or will time run out for Gail and Holly? Rated- M to be on the safe side.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: So... I have decided to try my hand at a Rookie Blue fic. It is a bit different than my normal stories, so I decided... why not try it? As I mention in the brief synopsis, this story is set after 'Heart Breakers, Money Makers'. I almost gave up on this story when I watched the newest episode, 'Deal With the Devil'... for everyone's sake, who are watching the American episode line-up...I will not spoil anything for you... you will get your chance to see it too. But instead of giving up, I decided to continue on and hopefully make-up for the way things seem to be going for favourite ladies! So, without further ado... Chapter One.**_

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"Serve. Protect. And just get back safe," Staff Sergeant Shaw said as he stared out into the parade room watching as the officers stand up in a disorderly fashion and walk over to the board to see who they were paired up with for the day. As he peered out at the group his eyes train on the brooding figure of Gail Peck as she rolled her eyes at whatever her fellow officer, Chloe Price, had said after they had saw their names on the board. Oliver could kick himself for his idea to have the two women partnered together for the day, but he knew his friend, Gail, was still upset about the break up between her and Holly and he hoped that Chloe's upbeat personality could help break the shell that Peck replaced around herself. As he turned his back from the room to head back to his office, Oliver heard an exasperated sigh from Gail and the words, "Let's just get out of here before I do something I regret to you." As he closed the glass door to his office, Staff Sergeant Shaw let out a sigh of his own and hoped that his and Celery's idea worked out as they planned.

"So..." Chloe said as she and Gail walked out into the corridor heading to the parking lot in the back, "Who's gonna drive? It's my first day off desk duty since the shooting and well, I was wondering if maybe you would let me drive."

The last part of her statement came out rushed and full of hope. Officer Peck rolled her eyes again as she stares at the back of the chipper red-haired officer, " I don't understand you at all, Price. You were shot in the neck. You have a blood clot that could possibly go to your brain and yet... you are still as annoyingly cheerful as you were before all of this happened. How can this be? And no... you don't get to drive. Who's to say you won't black out or something on the road and we both get killed?"

Chloe opened the door to the outside and stepped into the glaring sun, "I guess I have an upbeat personality, is all. I can't let any of this get me down, and besides... the doctor cleared me for patrol. She said the blood clot is breaking up and should be gone within a week, so you don't have to worry about me wrecking the squad car. You know, maybe that is why Oliver put us together. He may think that my cheerfulness will help you, it has been a few weeks since you actually had a smile on your face. Maybe he thought..."

"I am going to stop you right there, Chloe..." Gail snapped as she opened the patrol car's driver side door, " Because if you think for one minute that Oliver arranged any of this, I am going to have to tase you and then I will have to explain why I showed police brutality to a fellow officer and, quite frankly, I am not in the mood to do all of that right now." Gritting her teeth, Gail smiled a harried smile as she closed the driver-side door, "Just get in the damn squad car... and don't speak to me during this whole ride. The shift will go better for both of us if you keep quiet."

The two women rode in silence for several minutes as the Toronto morning traffic crept by them. " I wonder..." Chloe started as she stared out the passenger-side window, "why did you and Holly break up anyway? Did you cheat on her or something? Did she cheat on you?"

Peck let out an annoyed sigh as she slammed her hand against the steering wheel, "You just don't know how to shut up, do you? I don't want to talk about it, okay? Now please... shut up before I have to use the roll of electrical tape in my pack to make you keep silent."

Chloe put her hands up in surrender, "Okay. Okay. I just wanted to know what happened. I don't know... you guys just seemed so happy together and from what Nick told Dov... I just thought maybe you needed to talk to another woman about what happened... maybe you would open up more. I know Officer Collins isn't exactly the best person to talk to since you two were supposed to get married a few years back and then when you guys finally did get back together he left you for McNally and all. I just thought that maybe you would open up to someone you haven't dated is all."

Gail's grip tightened on the wheel as she turned the car down an abandoned alleyway, _No way in hell I am going to continue this conversation while driving,_ she thought as the patrol car rolled to a stop. "Look, whatever he told Epstein is confidential... and I am going to take care of Collins as soon as our shift is over. He had no right to tell Dov what he told him, sure I might have overreacted to what Holly's bitch of a friend was saying, but Holly had no right to agree with her either. She didn't even defend me against them! I went to get us a couple of drinks from the bar and by the time I got back, her 'doctor' friends were tearing me apart! 'She's not good enough for you.' 'How can you date a police officer, Holly? You have nothing in common!' 'I guess you will just have your fun for now, but what will happen when the fun goes away?' And she just sat there listening to them say this stuff, I mean, how was I supposed to react?" Gail stared at the shocked officer next to her and realised that she screwed up big time... the look on Chloe's face made Peck realise that Price had no idea what had happened that night at _The Penny_ and that it was she, Gail, who had told the irritatingly nosy woman in the passenger seat everything that she didn't want to share. She took a deep breath and stared out the window into the grimy view of the abandoned alleyway. Gail was thankful that the smell had not penetrated the car yet as she noticed that something slimy and black had dripped from the bag that hung from the mouth of the dumpster onto the street during the time they were parked there.

The blessed silence was cut short by Gail herself when she turned back to Officer Price, "Look... just forget I said anything. I have just had a few bad weeks is all. So we broke up? What does it matter? I am sure she will find someone else as will I. For now let's just forget that I actually said anything to you out of the ordinary, okay?" Peck patted the still stunned Chloe on the arm and put the squad car into reverse. "I could use a cup of coffee, how about you, Price?"

Chloe nodded her head in agreement and was about to reply when the radio in the car interrupted, _'1519, we have a situation out at 173 Richmond Street. A possible B and E. No suspects spotted at the location.'_

Clearing her throat, Officer Peck grabbed the radio and replied, "Dispatch, this is 1519. On our way." She turned to Price and smirked, "So much for coffee." Reaching for the switch, the blonde flicked the lights and sirens on and pressed down on the gas pedal.

The car raced out of the alleyway nearly hitting a red convertibleas Gail rushed to throw the car into drive, "Do these people know what flashing lights and sirens mean? It means stop you idiot!" She cried out at the driver of the car she nearly hit as they drove up the street.

"Richmond Street, isn't that the area where all those swanky houses are?" Chloe mused as she vainly ignored the Gail's rant at the driver of the other car.

"I think it is... that's a few blocks away from my parents house," Peck said as she turned left at the light and continued on down Westland.

Moments later the car pulled onto Richmond Street and Peck slowed the car down to a reasonable speed as they search for 173. "I'm sorry," Chloe said, breaking the silence that had formed around them.

Gail scoffed as she turned into the driveway of the house they were called to, "Sorry for what?"

"Sorry that you guys broke up. Did you get her side of the story? I mean, I am sure Holly had a good reason for not saying anything. Maybe she didn't want to start a problem in the middle of _The Penny, _I don't know... I am just speaking out loud, but did you ask her?"

Gail rolled her eyes for the hundredth time that day and cleared her throat, "Stop thinking out loud... you will give yourself an aneurysm. If she had a reason, she would have told me, but she didn't, okay? Now stop bringing it up, okay?" Gail ignored the stunned look on Chloe's face and reached for her radio, "Dispatch, this is 1519. We are at 173 Richmond Street. All is quiet. Has anyone else responded to the call and who placed the 911?"

_'1519. 1520 is on the way. The next-door neighbour called it in, said that the door was open and Mrs. O'Neil didn't answer when he called her phone.' _

"Right." Gail sighed, "Let's go, Price." She pulled her gun out and started toward the front door. "Smart neighbour... he didn't close the door after he called it in. Hopefully the techs can get a few prints off the door. Huh.. check this out." Peck stated as she entered the vestibule.

"That's a top-of-the-line security system!' Chloe exclaimed as she stared at the pristine white box with glowing LED screen on the wall. "I wonder why it is off? You think whoever broke in knew the code?"

"Or they knew whoever lives here. Come on... let's clear the house," Gail remembered the name of the occupant and tried calling out her name, "Mrs. O'Neil! Is everything all right? This is the police! Mrs. O'Neil!"

"Maybe she isn't home?" Chloe said hopefully.

"Then why was there another car parked in the driveway in front of the garage?" Peck asked as she led the other officer through the dining room.

"She decided to walk? She took a cab? I don't know, I am just trying to shake this weird feeling out of my head, okay?" Price said as she peered into the pantry as they walked into the kitchen, "Nothing seems out of place on the first floor and nobody is hiding in the closets. Should we check the second floor or maybe the basement?"

"I swear," the blonde officer started as she let out a low growl, "If this neighbour-guy was pulling a prank just to get us out here... away from our job... I swear I will run him in for obstructing justice or something! Let's check the basement first then we can go upstairs. Let's hope that Nick and Chris don't get here before we find out this is a false alarm."

"He is just a concerned neighbour, Gail... let it go." Chloe replied as she followed Peck down the basement stairs, "I would be concerned too if my neighbour had left their door wide open and they weren't answering my phone calls."

"Well, aren't you the nicest person in town?" Gail smirked sarcastically as she turned the corner in the nicely furnished basement of the home, "All I have to say is that I am glad I..." She stopped short when she noticed a slippered foot on the floor several feet in front of her. "Shit.."

"I knew something was going on! I really wished that she had went out for the day." Chloe moaned out as she wiped her right hand across her forehead. "Dispatch, this is Officer Price. We are at 173 Richmond Street and we have a 10-54. What's the ETA of car 1520?"

_'This is Officer Collins. We just arrived, what's your twenty?'_

Chloe sighed with relief as she listened to the echo of Nick's voice above their head, "We are in the basement Nick!" Price shouted as she moved closer to the stairway. "What are you doing, Gail?" She asked as she turned to see her partner kneeling over the body.

"I'm checking if she is still alive," Peck answered as she placed her hand on the victim's neck. A frown etched itself on her mouth as she took her hand away. Gail reached for her radio at her shoulder and clicked it on, "Dispatch, this is Officer Peck, requesting someone an ME."

_'Roger that Officer.'_

"What's going on?" Chris asked as he made his way down the stairs followed by Nick Collins.

"We have a body here. Not sure if it is the owner of the house, but seeing as she is wearing a housecoat and slippers, I can safely say that this is Mrs. O'Neil." Gail said as she glanced back at the woman on the floor.

"Anyway to tell if this was murder?" Nick asked as his head darted back and forth attempting to peer into the deep recesses of the basement.

"I didn't see anything to point in that direction, but we have to wait for someone from the lab to get here." Peck said as she looked around the basement. It was a newly renovated basement with a pool table in the far corner and a large LCD TV mounted in the middle of the wall in front of a large black leather sofa. She narrowed her eyes as she noticed a glint of metal in the darkness on the wall in front of where the victim's body had fallen. Gail raised her flash-light and the faint light fell upon another room. As she walked towards the room, she realised she was holding her breath and slowly let it out, "Hey guys... we may need to call Homicide just to be on the safe side."

"Why is that, Gail?" Chris asked as he moved closer to her.

"Because I think she was heading towards her panic room."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who followed or favourited this story! As I mentioned before, this is my first Rookie Blue story. I mainly write Harry Potter fics... well, I should say Bellamione fics since Harry is not a main focus point. I also write stories for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, so this was a bit different than my normal style. So without further ado, here is chapter 2!

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The four stand in silence as they wait for someone from the forensics lab to show up. Gail peered at the other three from her corner of the room. Nick was staring up at the stairway debating whether to stay downstairs or to go up to the first floor, while Chloe was nervously biting her nails. Chris, on the other hand, Gail noted, was sweating profusely in the slightly chilled room and was eyeing the big screen TV covetously. Before she could ask Chris what was wrong with him, Nick spoke, "I think we should check the rest of the house. Who knows if this person is still here or not." Moments before Collins had called Traci Nash from Homicide, who was still at the station and brought her up to speed. Detective Nash had said she would be on her way and was bringing Gail's brother, Steve, with her and they were just waiting for them to arrive.

"Good idea, Nick," Gail answered as she stared at the ex-soldier, "Take Diaz with you. Price, why don't you canvas the neighbours and see if they have had any problems in the area with burglary. I'll wait here."

As the group dispersed, Gail could hear the sounds of another car parking on the side of the road. When she had cased the room before, she had noticed a window facing towards the front of the house that should have an unobstructed view of the front yard, so she walked to the window and peered outside. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Holly walk towards the front of the house. _Why did it have to be Holly? _She thought as she closed the blinds and walked back towards the middle of the room. Peck could hear voices in the hall as Holly saw Chloe as the rookie was walking out the door to speak with the neighbours and nearly jumped when she heard Holly's boots against the wooden stairs leading to the basement.

_Just act calm, Peck. You can do it. _She thought as she looked about herself to make sure her uniform was presentable. _God... just make yourself look obvious. _

"Anyone down here?" Holly asked as she made her way down the last few steps, "Chloe told me she was canvassing the neighbourhood and that someone was down..." the forensic pathologist stopped mid-sentence when she saw Gail standing in the middle of the room.

"Yeah, I stayed down here with the body." Gail replied with a half-hearted smile. She could not take her eyes off Holly as she stood in the middle of the room. The pain was evident on the pathologist's face but she tried her hardest to mask her feelings as she stared back at Gail. After a few seconds that felt like hours, Gail cleared her throat, "The body is right over here. A neighbour had called in a possible breaking and entering when he saw that the victim's door was wide open and when she wasn't answering her phone. When Officer Price and I entered the house, we made sure to secure the first floor then proceeded to the basement. When we got here..." Gail lifted her hand towards the body and let it fall back to her side.

"You guys didn't move her did you?" Holly questioned as she walked over towards the body on the floor and set down her case.

"No, this is where I found her. I had to check to make sure she was still breathing, but other than that, I didn't move her," Gail said as she stared at the floor. Footsteps echo off the wooden steps as more people arrive at the scene.

"Nick. Chris. Start helping Chloe with the neighbourhood." Traci called out to the two men who were in the house. "If something happened here, one of them may have seen something suspicious. Ah, good to see you Holly. What have you got for us?" Traci asked as she stares at the pathologist as Steve stared at his sister.

"Well, Gail was telling me that they didn't move the body, but she had checked for vitals before she called it in. Right now though, I can't tell much. There are no physical signs of bruising, nor any lacerations that I can see." She snapped a few pictures of the body with her camera before continuing. "It almost seems as if she just dropped, but I know that is never the case."

Steve nodded his head as he let the pathologist continue with her work, "Gail... what made you call this in as a homicide?"

"Well, once we found the body, I continued looking around the room and noticed the position of the body as opposed to the door of the panic room and I thought..."

"Wait..." Traci interrupted and stared questioningly at the blonde woman, "There is a panic room down here?"

"Yeah." Gail pointed her flash-light towards the opening in the wall that led to another room. "We didn't turn on the lights down here yet and I noticed something metallic in the middle of the wall and saw it was an entrance to a panic room."

"Traci, come take a look at this." Steve said as he paced over to the wall, "There is a trail of blood over here."

"Huh... you're right," Traci replied as she followed the footsteps of the male detective and knelt down beside him, "Guess your instincts were correct Gail." Nash stood up and sighed, "We are going to need a few techs in here. As the first officers on the scene, did you and Chloe see anything out of the ordinary? Like furniture upturned or anything that would make this seem like a B and E?"

Gail shook her head, "No. That is why I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe Diaz and Collins found something on the second floor, but Price and I..." she shook her head again, "We didn't see anything."

"Okay." Traci replied grimly, "I'll go talk to Nick and Chris and find out what they might have seen. Steve you wanna call the techs in?"

"Hey... I might have something here," Holly said as she peered at the corpse as she turned it over. "She seems to be in the final stages of rigor and there is the onset of lividity, but with the temperature of the room I can't give a proper TOD... maybe as early as yesterday noon to as late as midnight the night before. It seems very chilly in this room even for a summer day." She forced open one of the victim's eyes with a gloved hand, "Slight petechial hemorraging of the conjuntivae. Plus, there seems to be some tearing of the inferior radio-ulnar articulation of the... huh."

"What is it?" Traci asked as she walked back towards the centre of the room.

"It's just that given the position of the body's arm and the fact that there is no bruising to the wrist... this has to be post mortem."

"So, we have a dead body. No signs of physical assault on the victim, that we can see, and no signs of a burglary... can you tell if the petechial hemorraging is due to asphyxiation?" Traci asked as she stared at the pathologist.

Holly looked up at the detective grimly and shook her head, "I have to take her back to the lab to be positive. Once we do an autopsy, I will be able to tell you more. Right now, I do not see any signs of it being homicide. There is no discolouration around the mouth and nose, nor is there signs of lacerations... but, that still doesn't rule out a homicide."

Traci sighed when the doctor finished her analysis and looked towards Steve Peck. "It looks like it is going to be a long day today."

"You said it," he replied as he reached for his phone. "Go talk to the guys and find out if they saw anything on the second floor. Also, let them know to ask the neighbours if they noticed anything out of the ordinary yesterday. A car that seemed out of place. An unscheduled delivery truck anything that wasn't normal. I'll call the techs to come in."

"Can you call the lab to bring a truck over to pick up the body? There is nothing else that I can do here with her anyway and I have enough pictures of the body." Holly said sheepishly as she shrugged her shoulders when Steve gave her a curious look, "I left my phone on my desk when I was called to come here. I want to take a few more pictures of this room and of the blood trail in the panic room before I leave."

"Not a problem," Steve said with a smile as he walked up the stairs with Traci.

Gail pushed back her hair and looked up at the ceiling, _Great... now what can I do? I'm in a basement with my ex-girlfriend and have to stay with her until someone gets back. I should have let Chloe stay here with the body._

Holly cleared her throat to get Peck's attention, "Gail... can you come over here? I need you to shine your flash-light on the blood inside the panic room. I tried the light switch but it doesn't work. I think it is set up so the light will on turn on when the door is shut."

Gail looked at her cautiously as she slowly made her way over to the room.

"Look..." Holly huffed as she saw the trepidation in the officer's eyes, "We may not be together any more, but can't we at least be civilised?"

Peck nodded her head quickly and clicked her flash-light on. She didn't speak as she was afraid that her voice would betray the wellspring of emotions she felt at that moment.

"Shine the light further towards the left please," the pathologist ordered softly as the steady click of her camera echoed in the otherwise silent room. Gail complied to the request and moved further in the room scraping her back against the wall as she attempted to step over the blood on the floor. "Oh... be careful where you lean. I heard that some of these rooms have a special button on the side of the wall close to the door that will..." the door suddenly closed interrupting her, "lock the door... Great..." She sighed as she stared about the now lit room, "On the plus side..." Holly grinned half-heartedly, her hands half raised at her side, "We now have lights in here."


	3. Chapter 3

**_Author's Note: Sorry about the delay! Work has been a bit crazy as of late and I was not able to post this one on the day that I had planned. But here it is... Chapter three!_**

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Gail tried breaking down the door, but to no avail. Mindful not to step on the blood on the floor, she walked over to a cot on the far wall and sat down. "I wouldn't do that if I were you... you might have contaminated evidence." Holly said as she continued to stare at the banks of TV monitors on the wall. "Wow... I never expected to see this sort of set up. I guess she was really paranoid, huh?"

"I guess so," Gail replied sullenly. She reached for her radio at her shoulder to call to the officers on the premises. "This is Officer Peck. I am locked in the panic room with Forensic Pathologist, Holly Stewart. We need assistance, please respond."

Nothing. Static echoed through the room as the two women stared at each other.

"This room must be completely reinforced," the pathologist mused as she looked away from Peck and stared at the ceiling. "I heard that cellphones and radios do not normally work in reinforced panic rooms." She nodded her head towards the hard-wired phone on the wall. "That is why these things are installed with landlines." She walked over to the phone and picked it up. Silence greeted her as she lifted the receiver to her ear. "Figures... no dial tone." Sighing as she walked back to her perch by the monitors, Holly continued to stare at the feeds streaming in. Holly watched as Detective Peck talked on the phone at his ear and Nash stared out the front window in the living room.

Gail scoffed after a few minutes, startling the other woman, "Is there something on your mind, Gail?"

"Oh... it's nothing," she said as she stood up and stretched, "It's just that you seem to have all of this figured out. The ins and outs of panic rooms... The whole calm aura even though we are locked in a room that we do not know how to get out of... oh... but look who I am talking to. It's Holly Stewart! The woman who knows everything... well... almost everything."

Holly narrowed her eyes and looked at Gail. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think it means, Holly? You are supposed to be so smart, but I guess you can't figure out something that is right in front of you!" Gail exclaimed with her hands in the air.

Holly took a deep breath and continued to look at the woman in front of her. "I take it that you wish to discuss something that does not pertain to our current situation."

Peck's eyes widen as she looked at the pathologist incredulously. "Oh... this has everything to do with our current situation! That night at _The Penny _has everything to do with what is going on right now between us!"

"Hmm, not sure I follow that line of logic, but I'll bite. What does that night have to do with our current state?" Holly queried as she folded her arms in front of her in a defensive stance.

"If you had never said those things that night, I wouldn't have tried so hard to avoid touching you just then!" Gail shouted, "If we had just gone to Fight Night instead of spending time with your little doctor friends we would still be dating and none of this would have happened."

Holly uncrossed her arms and placed them on her hips, "What did I say that night Gail? I often wonder what it is you heard me say or saw me do to cause you to end our relationship so abruptly. Are you so self-conscious to think I didn't defend you to my friends? I will admit the things that Lisa said were totally uncalled for and I told her she did not know what she was talking about. That nothing she said was making any sense! She was drunk, Gail! We all were!"

"I was standing right there, Holly!" Gail gestured behind Holly's back, "I was right behind you and I heard everything! I heard how she said I wasn't good enough for you and how I wasn't smart enough for you. And basically said I was just a game to you! She said you were making an uncomplicated decision!"

"Enough, Gail!" Holly shouted and then closed her eyes. She regretted raising her voice, but needed to be heard. "I never said any of that. I told her she was completely wrong. And she didn't know what she was talking about when she said that it would be over once I had my fun. I also said no one would get hurt and things were different... so much more different than previous relationships that I have had. I... I really care for you Gail." Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she stared at the police officer in front of her, "Hell, I care for you more than I have cared for anyone else. I remember when Chloe was shot and I came to check on you... even before we had started dating, I cared for you... and it scared me. Hell, it still scares me how much I care for you." Holly started to walk towards Gail but stopped before reaching her, "But I am not going to kid myself to think you feel the same way. If this is what you want... being single and still a bit paranoid about the people who care about you, then that's okay. Once this day is over... I will try to find a transfer or something. Maybe try for something in Timmins or maybe even go to New York, I don't know. Just something so we can both have space..."

Holly was not able to finish her sentence as Gail stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the pathologist's waist and pulled her closer, "You talk too much," Peck murmured before she leaned in and kissed Holly passionately. Holly wrapped her arms around Gail's neck and pulled her closer. She smiled into the kiss as Gail's hand rubbed circles on her back. The officer ended the kiss and allowed her forehead to rest on Holly's. "I had to do something to keep you from talking too much and there was nothing else I could think of to do." A slight smile formed on the blonde's lips as she stared into Holly's eyes. As soon as the smile had surfaced it was quickly replaced by a hesitant frown, "Look... Holly... I was an asshole to you these past few weeks. I... I guess I was just nervous. And as you said a bit self-conscious."

"Just a bit?" Holly quipped as she ran her fingers through Gail's short hair and smiled.

Peck rolled her eyes before continuing, "Okay... maybe more than a bit. It's just that this is all new to me. The way you make me feel is completely different than I have ever felt while dating someone. I feel lighter, more myself than ever before and it scares me." She paused as she stared at the woman in front of her. Gail moved her hands from Holly's back and placed them on the pathologist's hips. Giving them a small squeeze, she continued, "And so when I heard boob-job doctor make that remark about our relationship ending soon because we had nothing in common... I felt... I felt..."

"You felt like she could be right?" Holly asked as she raised an eyebrow. Gail lowered her chin to her chest and sighed. The pathologist rolled her eyes and ran her left hand, which was draped around the officer's neck, to Gail's chin. Lifting her girlfriend's chin until they saw eye-to-eye, Holly spoke, " You should never listen to what Lisa says, honey. For all her bravado and supposed knowledge on relationships and how they work and compatibility, she is as single as they come. She has never had a relationship that lasted longer than a month. She is just a lonely, jealous woman who hates to see her friends happy. I know I told you they were like family to me, but I've come to realise I have outgrown that family. I don't need them any more. I realised all of this when we were at _The Penny_. I have you and all your friends..." Holly smiled as she saw a small tear trek across Gail's cheek. She wiped it away before she continuing, "And that is all I need."

Gail sniffled and tried to hide it with a laugh, "So does this mean we are back together?"

"What do you think?" Holly whispered before pulling Gail back in for a smouldering kiss.

Peck answered the kiss as she tightened her grip around Holly's waist, slowly backing the pathologist towards the table next to the bank of monitors. Once the back of Holly's legs hit the edge of the table, she sat down on it and instinctively wrapped her legs around Gail's waist, knocking the radio off the officer's belt. "Ouch!" she exclaimed as the flash-light from the tactical belt dug into her thigh.

"Sorry," Gail murmured as she moved her hands from Holly's waist to her own to unclasp the belt. As it fell to the floor, Peck returned her hands to her lover's waist and smiled. "I missed you so much," She whispered near Holly's ear as she kissed her neck.

Holly smiled at Gail's declaration and murmured, "I missed you too."

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_**Author's Note 2- I would like to thank everyone who has favourited, followed or reviewed this story so far!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay! I have majority of this story written out (8 Chapters so far) and wanted to go over it before posting this chapter, but work got in the way. I want to thank everyone for their kind reviews! Also, want to thank everyone who favourited or followed this story thus far. A little note to readers though: this story is not as it seems. I have received a few reviews that comment on the lack of "panic" being stuck in a panic room should cause these two women and their friends. I would like for everyone to keep in mind that things are not what they seem... **_

_**Enough about all of this, on to the chapter!**_

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Upstairs on the first floor, Traci stared at Steve as he paced around the living room. "I just don't understand it, Traci. There seems to be no sign of forced entry. They knew the code... or she had left it turned off, but that doesn't make any sense given the fact that she has a panic room in the basement. Nothing was taken from the house. Hell, it looks untouched! The only thing we have as a sign that something did happen is the blood trail leading out of the panic room and post mortem ligament tear on the victim's wrist. I just don't understand it at all."

Traci sighed as she leaned against the windowsill. "I know, Steve. Maybe Holly will learn more when they take the body back to the lab. And maybe we can find more if the techs would show up soon."

"Yeah, the techs should be here in twenty minutes to a half-hour. Dispatch said that 27 Division had a robbery at a convenient store that turned ugly. The clerk and a customer were shot multiple times. Said the store looked like a war-zone."

"Really?" Nash stared at him incredulously as she moved from the window. "What did they take?"

"You'll never believe it when I tell you..."

"Try me."

"Okay.." Steve put his hands in his pants pockets and paced the floor in front of the marble fireplace. "The suspects took seven rolls of lottery tickets, three cases of beer, and two cartons of cigarettes."

Traci's mouth dropped and her eyes widened comically. "You're joking, right?"

Detective Peck chuckled slightly. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me." He took his hands out of his pockets and stretched. "Ahh, you were right by the way..." When the woman stared at him quizzically, he continued, "It is going to be a very long day. How are they doing with the canvassing?" He nodded towards the door.

Traci shook her head and stared back out the window. "Not good. Chloe said she talked to the neighbour who called it in and said he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary."

"Did he at least give us a bit more information about our victim?"

Nash shrugged her shoulders. "Just pretty much the same stuff that Holly had mentioned when we looked at the panic room. He said she was a very paranoid woman. Husband had left her a couple of years back and took the kids with him... he thinks that is when she started really freaking out. It was also the same time she had the panic room installed. Other than that, he didn't have any other information on her."

"What about Chris and Nick? Did they find anything out from the other neighbours? An unfamiliar car? Anything? Maybe even saw the husband come back for some reason?"

"Nothing. Either someone isn't telling everything they know, or this is the most unobservant neighbourhood I have ever seen," Traci said as one of the techs finally walked through the door. "About time you guys showed up. I want you guys to start in the basement first, that's where the crime scene is. Then you guys can check out the rest of the house."

* * *

Holly smiled to herself as she felt Gail's teeth bite down softly on her neck. She grabbed a hold of the officer's neck and pulled her more firmly against her. Her eyes fluttered open momentarily and she saw Traci, Steve, and a tech, Johnson, she thought the man's last name was, on the screen and instantly stiffened. "Gail... Gail. Honey?"

"Hmm?" Gail murmured as she continued to lavish the pathologist neck with kisses.

"We have to stop." Holly pushed on Peck's shoulder slightly to gain her attention. "Traci and your brother on our their way down the steps to the basement as we speak... if they find us like this... I really do not want to explain why they caught us in a compromising position while on the job."

"That's if we can ever get out of here," Gail said with a smirk as she stepped away from Holly and held out her hand. The pathologist took her hand with a smile and allowed the officer to help her off the table. "Do you think there is a switch on their side that could help us get out?"

Holly laughed at Gail's question and squeezed her hand. "Well, if it did have a button like that on the other side, it would be a pretty pathetic panic room, don't you think?" She readjusted her glasses as she spoke and turned towards her girlfriend to inspect her uniform. "Uh... you might want to fix your shirt just a bit." A smirk appeared on her face when Gail glanced down at her untucked shirt. "I'll get your belt while you fix your shirt."

As Peck tucked her shirt back into her pants, she watched Holly walk the few steps towards the table to pick up the tactical belt. "Hey, Lunch-box!" Gail said playfully with a smile playing across her lips. "You might want to fix your hair and shirt as well."

Holly looked down at her button-up shirt and her face flushed. "Well..." She chuckled slightly as she buttoned the top few buttons of the shirt and smoothed her hands over it, "I guess you are the one at fault for that." Then she brushed her right hand through her hair and smiled at Gail. The smile suddenly turned to a frown when she looked about the room. "You know, I never really noticed this before, but does this room seem to look lived in? I know people normally stock up supplies in panic rooms, but this seems a bit excessive."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean look around you." Holly gestured to the cot that Gail had sat on only a few minutes before and then she pointed to a pile of clothes on the floor. "It almost seems as if this is a bedroom instead of a panic room. And the metal walls have been painted over. There are paintings on the wall. It is almost as if someone was living in here for a short amount of time."

"Now that you mention it," Gail started as she stared about the room. "It does look like bedroom instead of a panic room. Maybe she thought it would be the best way to keep herself from freaking out if she had to use it."

"That would make sense, but it still doesn't give an account for the pile of clothing in the corner." The pathologist glanced over at the monitors lined up along the wall, "Gail, look. They are looking around to see where we went. I don't think they noticed the door is closed." Holly walked closer to the door and yelled, "Hey! We're in here! We're trapped!"

She started beating on the door when Gail approached her. "Let me help you," She said as she took out her flash-light and started beating the door with it. "Steve! Traci! Guys we're in here! Help!"

"Look, there's a vent over the door, maybe if we yell through that, they could hear us better," Holly said as she glanced back at the bank of monitors and noticed that the group on the outside didn't acknowledge their screams. "Help me bring the cot over to the door and one of us can stand on it."

"Sure," Gail replied as she followed Holly over to the cot. She grabbed one side of it while her girlfriend went towards the other one, "On three. One. Two. Three." Both women struggled to lift the bed and groaned when it wouldn't budge.

"I think this thing is bolted down... that's odd." Holly commented when both women stopped their attempts at moving it. "What do we do now? There are no chairs in this room and if the cot is bolted down, I am quite sure the tables are too." She walked towards the table and attempted to move it, but to no avail.

"How about if I kneel in front of the door and you step up on my leg to reach the vent?" Gail suggested as she started playing with the collar of her uniform. "Is it getting hot in here or is that just me?"

A fine sheen of perspiration had spread over Holly's forehead as she waved her hand in a desperate attempt to cool herself off. "I thought it was just from our recent exertions, but now that you mention it, I am getting a bit warm as well." She glanced about the room. "I don't see a thermostat in the room to indicate how warm it is in here, but it feels as though it is at least fifteen degrees warmer in here than when we first entered the room."

"Do you think that is a heat lamp in the light socket instead of a regular bulb?" Gail asked as she pulled her uniform jacket off.

"Possibly," Holly said as she shuddered, "but I doubt it. It could be because of the excess of electronics in this room. It always seems a bit warmer in a room filled with tech, we probably didn't notice it before when the door was open. " She gathered her hair in her left hand as her right reached into the front pocket of her jeans while toeing her shoes off. She pulled out an elastic band, tied her hair up in a messy bun and gestured towards Peck. "I'm ready to try your idea."

"Okay," Gail replied as she walked back towards the door. Once she reached the door, she turned back to face Holly. Peck lowered herself to her knees in front of the door, then lifted her right leg to allow her to place her right foot on the floor. The officer stared at the other woman and took a deep breath. "Let me know when you are ready so I can help steady you when you try to reach the vent."

Holly nodded her head and walked towards the officer and held out her right hand. "Give me your hand," she ordered softly as she waited for Gail to comply.

Gail reached her hand out, softly gripped Holly's hand, and prepared herself for the other woman to step up onto her leg. "Ready?"

"Ready." Holly confirmed as she stepped her socked foot onto Gail's thigh. The officer reached her hand that wasn't currently holding Holly's hand to Holly's thigh to steady the pathologist's balance as she lifted her other leg onto Gail's. "Okay Gail, let go of my hand so I can use both hands to hold onto the vent."

"Can you see out?" Gail asked as she gripped Holly's thighs tighter to keep her from falling.

"No, I can't even hear their voices!" Holly exclaimed in exasperation.

"Try calling out anyway, what harm can it do?" Gail said as she kept focusing on holding onto Holly and trying to push the overwhelming sense of dread that started to fill her heart back into the dark recesses of her mind.

"Traci! Steve! Anybody! Can you guys hear me?" Holly shouted her voice straining to keep the panic out of it.

Gail glanced at the monitors to see if the others on the outside had heard Holly's cries. "I don't think they can hear you, Honey," Gail said softly as she patted her lover's leg. "Come down from there. We need to come up with a plan to get us out of here."

Holly wiped the sweat that dripped from her face onto the corner of her long-sleeved blouse. "We need to figure something out soon, otherwise we could have a problem."

* * *

Outside the three officers walked back towards the house. "I don't know about you two," Chloe started as she caught up with the two male officers, "but I think this canvass was a bust. No one knew anything!"

"We can't think like that, Chloe," Chris replied as he wiped his nose with his hand and sniffled. "This was a holiday weekend and most of the neighbours were probably out of town celebrating."

"You okay, man?" Nick asked as he stared at his colleague.

"I'm fine... allergies." The man in question replied as he moved ahead of the group. "I get them from time to time, but not this bad."

"You should take something, Chris," Chloe added, her voice warm with concern for her fellow officer. "Or maybe you should see a doctor, it could be something worse than allergies."

"I said I'm fine, Chloe!" Chris retorted harshly. When he realised how angry he sounded, he murmured softly, "I'm sorry... it's just that it is affecting more so that normal. It was probably that older lady's perfume." He pointed towards the house across the street, "She was the last person I talked to and it was really strong. Like a mix of every single flower in a flower shop, a bakery, and gin." He shuddered as he remembered the smell. "Then add in the smell of old moth balls and cat hair that filled her house and well... you understand."

Nick chuckled as he watched his partner rub his nose again. "I'm glad it was you and not me, buddy. I'm allergic to animal hair. I wouldn't..." The ex-soldier stopped mid-sentence as he stared at the silver SUV that had just turned into the driveway. He walked over to where the SUV parked, followed closely by Chloe. When a dark-haired woman dressed in pressed black dress pants and a white blouse stepped out of the driver-side, he spoke, "Excuse me, ma'am? You can't park there. This is a crime scene and I need you to..."

"What the hell do you mean that this is a crime scene? This is my house!" The woman said harshly as she pulled a briefcase out of the SUV.

"Are you Mrs. O'Neil?" Chloe asked as she stared at the woman who continued to walk towards them.

"Yes... my name is Patricia O'Neil... and what the hell are you doing on my lawn? And why is my front door open?"

The officers' radios crackled to life and Traci's voice echoed across, _'Guys, have any one of you seen Gail or Holly? They are not down in the basement and they left the body unattended.'_

"Basement?! You mean, _my _basement? What they hell are you guys doing in _MY_ BASEMENT?" the woman queried as she dropped her briefcase on the front lawn. "If you destroyed anything in my house, I will take you all to court! I have priceless heirlooms in there!" She screamed out as she dug her hand in her purse pulling out a phone. "You know what? I am just going to call my lawyer right now!"

_'Chloe. Nick. Chris? Do you guys copy? Don't tell me you guys are missing too?'_

Chloe clicked her radio on and stuttered, "Uh... No we are here, Traci. Haven't seen Gail or Holly, but we have a situation on our hands..."

_'What is it, Chloe?' _

"Mrs. O'Neil is in the driveway and wants to get into her house," Chloe replied as she stared at the woman talking excitedly on her phone to her lawyer.

_'Mrs. O'Neil?! If she is out there with you guys... then who do we have here?'_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note: Here is chapter 5! I would like to thank everyone, as always, for reviewing, favouriting and following this story!**_

* * *

The day was getting even longer for the officers of 15 Division as they continued to try to find out who the person in the basement was and what exactly happened. Nick and Chloe had led the now harried woman into the house. Once they entered the front door, they saw Chris walking up the stairs from the basement followed by Steve and Traci. Traci asked the woman to sit down, to which the woman responded, "It's my own house... I can sit down whenever the hell I want to!" She placed her briefcase on the floor beside a brown suede sofa and sat down with a huff.

"Please, Mrs. O'Neil, we are just trying to do our job." Steve said softly as he stared at the woman.

"Oh sure... I am sure this is part of your job description! Breaking into a woman's home while she is out of the country on business. How long have you been in my house?"

"Ma'am," Traci started calmly as she sat down on a leather recliner opposite of the sofa the woman had sat down in. "We received a call for a possible Breaking and Entering this afternoon around twelve. When officers, Price and Peck arrived at the scene your front door was open and the alarm system was turned off. So they came in to investigate. When they went down into the basement, they found someone."

"I hope they arrested them then," Patricia exclaimed as she stared at Nash. Her loathing for the police officers being in her house disappeared only to be placed on the first intruder in her house.

"Well..." Traci trailed off as she stared at Steve who nodded his head for her to continue. "No. they didn't"

"What do we, as citizens, pay the police for anyway?" the woman asked as she threw her hands in the air and stared at Chloe. "You are one of the ones who entered my house first, yes? I see the name Price on your uniform. Why didn't you and this other officer arrest the person that had entered my home?"

Chloe rubbed her hand across the back of her neck. "Yes, I was one of the officers who first responded to the call. We didn't arrest the person in your basement, because... well... because..."

"Because the person is dead, Mrs. O'Neil," Steve finished for Chloe.

"Oh god..." Patricia covered her mouth with her hand. "You mean there is a dead body... right here... right now... in my basement?" She stared at the officers and scoffed, "There can't be. You must be joking."

Traci stared at the woman for a few moments as she allowed the woman to collect herself after hearing the news. "Now Mrs. O'Neil..." Traci began as she stared at the woman sitting on the brown suede sofa in front of her. "I have a few questions that I need for you to answer to the best of your ability."

"Am I a suspect?" the woman asked as she stared wide-eyed at the detective.

"No... Nothing like that ma'am, we just want to figure out as much as possible so we can proceed in our investigation." Mrs. O'Neil nodded her head in consent before Nash continued, "How long were you out of the country?"

"Um... about seven... eight months," Patricia replied as she stared at the ceiling and thought back. Returning her gaze to Nash, she sighed, "I work as a consultant for a pharmaceutical company ran out of Germany. I had to report to the main headquarters in Munich for a convention. Then I had to travel to Rome, Paris, London, Madrid and Tokyo to help train. I just flew in this morning from Tokyo to hold a training session here at the Toronto branch. When I got out of the meetings, I decided to go home. My next flight is to leave next week for the session in Sydney. I wanted to rest in my own bed for a couple of days since this session was so close to my house."

"I see," Traci said as she looked at her notebook, "Was there any other time during these past seven or eight months that you came back home?"

"No. Each session lasts a two to three weeks. It really depends on how many new consultants they have hired on and also depends on how long the branch has been in operation. For example, I was in Madrid for a month because they just opened the branch there back in January and really needed the training."

Steve looked at the woman in front of him. "You said that it is a pharmaceutical company, correct?"

"Yes," Patricia replied as she smoothed her hands over her lap.

"What's the name of the company and what exactly do you train these people on exactly?" He asked as he continued to stare at her. Steve didn't know what he was looking for exactly when he stared at the woman, but he had a feeling she wasn't exactly telling them the whole truth.

"Zurich-Mueller. As I said before, the company is based out of Munich, Germany. Since I am a consultant, I mainly train the new marketing teams at the locations or I train the buyers. I have nothing to do with the labs and scientists that work in them if you are asking. I just train the people who try to sell the products that are made."

"Okay," Traci replied as she scribbled something down in her notebook. "Now is there anyone who has the code to your security system? A neighbour you might trust to look after any pets or plants you may have. Someone who would pick up your mail and bring it into your house while you are gone on business trips?"

"The only person I would trust to do such a thing would have to be my neighbour, Ms. Myers, " Patricia pointed towards the house on the left side of hers. "She's a really nice lady... a little paranoid, but other than that, a very nice lady. She would never tell anyone my code, not even my pain in the ass ex-husband."

Traci smiled softly as she listened to the woman. After Patricia had finished, Traci said, "Well, I have no more questions for you... unless my colleague, Detective Peck has anything for you, I think we are done here."

Steve shook his head, "I don't have anything more to ask, but let me offer one of our officers to escort you to a hotel. Since this is a crime scene, we can not allow you to stay in your home, but I promise we will try to finish up before you have to travel to Sydney. Just so you can at least sleep in your own bed this year." He smiled as Patricia laughed slightly at his attempt of a joke.

"Thank you, Detective. Also, I am sorry to all of you for how I acted earlier. I still feel a bit jet-lagged and I was just wanting to crash in my own house for once and when I saw you all standing in front of my house..."

"It's no problem, ma'am," Nick said as he clasped his hands behind his back. "If you want, I can take you to a hotel in town."

"That might be a good idea, Nick," Traci said as she stood up. "Oh before I forget, can we get a contact number from you, Mrs. O'Neil? Just in case we need to ask you any more questions."

"Oh sure..." Mrs. O'Neil reached inside her purse and pulled out a business card. "My cell phone number is on the bottom. That is the number to reach me by."

"Thank you, Mrs. O'Neil," Traci said as she reached for the card. "I am sorry about any inconvenience this is causing you. Like Steve said, we hope to be out of your hair shortly and you can go back to business as usual."

The four officers watched as Officer Collins escorted the woman outside and into his squad car. "Do you trust anything she said?" Steve asked Traci when the car was backing out of the driveway.

"Not even a little bit," Traci said as she turned to face the male detective. "Chris, I want you to go back to the station and team up with Epstein to see what you guys can turn up on this Zurich-Mueller company and also see what you can pull up from her travel records. I want to know for certain if Mrs. O'Neil is telling the truth. Also... see if you can run the plates on both cars, the one that was in the driveway when Chloe and Gail arrived and also the ones on the SUV that O'Neil drove up in. Something is not adding up and I want to find out what it is exactly."

"I'm going to have to take Gail and Chloe's patrol car since Nick left with Mrs. O'Neil," Chris said as he finished writing the list of things that Traci wanted him to find out.

"Go ahead..." Chloe said as she shrugged her shoulders, "We can ride back with Traci and Steve." As Chris turned to walk out the door, Price remembered something. "Hey... where is Gail anyway?"

* * *

"God... why is it so hot in here?" Gail moaned as she shrugged her uniform top off, "I'm going to take that damn light bulb out. Maybe without the light, it won't be as hot in here." She walked over towards the table that was void of monitors and stood on it. "Holly, can you make sure I don't fall when I do this?"

"Yeah," Holly said as she unbuttoned her blouse revealing a black undershirt. She strolled over to the table and placed her hands on Gail's waist to help steady the officer as she leaned to reach the light.

"Shit!" Gail shouted as she snatched her hand away from the bulb. "I can't grab it! It's too hot!"

"Use your shirt... or better yet, use mine," Holly said as she handed her button up shirt to Gail. "Just be careful."

"I will," Gail mumbled as she reached for the bulb again. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the bulb with her covered hand and sighed, "It's warm, but not as much as it was before. I just have to turn it a bit and then hopefully we won't have to contend with the... dammit!" She swore as a breaking sound filled the room and the light went out.

Holly reached for the flash-light on Gail's waist and clicked it on. "Honey, are you okay?"

"The damn bulb broke off in my hand... I think it cut me," Gail said as she centred herself on the table. "Can you help me down?"

The pathologist took a couple of steps back and lifted her hand that didn't have the flash-light. "Easy does it." She said as Gail took her hand and slowly let herself down off the table. "Now let me take a look at your hand."

* * *

The tech walked back up the stairs just as Traci and Steve were making there way back down, "I'm finished down there. I was able to pick up a few prints, a couple of fibres, and a few hairs, but other than that, it is pretty clean down there."

"What about the blood in the panic room?" Steve questioned as he peered over the man's shoulder.

"What panic room?" Johnson asked as he stared at the two detectives.

"The panic room that was in front of the victim," Traci replied as she moved past the tech to get into the basement.

"I didn't see a room in front of the victim... just a panelled wall like the rest of the basement. It had a thermostat on it and another security panel. There was only one room," Johnson said as he stood in the middle of the stairs looking down at Nash.

Traci eyes widened as she looked up at Steve. At the same time they both exclaimed, "Gail! Holly!"


	6. Chapter 6

**_Author's Note: Here is chapter six! I would like to thank everyone for their kind reviews! It is really appreciated!_**

* * *

"There we go..." Holly said as she slid the last piece of glass out of Gail's hand, "I think that is the last of it, but with only the light from your flash-light, I can't be sure. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay... I'm sorry though," Gail said as she stared into the darkness.

"What are you sorry for, honey?" Holly asked as she wrapped her shirt around Gail's hand to stop the bleeding.

"I'm sorry I ruined your shirt. I promise when we get out of here, I will buy you a new one." Gail laughed at a sudden thought that popped into her head.

"What's so funny?" Holly asked as she sat down on the table beside Gail.

"I was just thinking about what Chloe said earlier," Gail said as she placed her uninjured hand on her head. "She had this inane idea that Oliver had us ride together because he wanted her to try to get me to open up about what happened between us." She looked back up at her girlfriend and smiled sadly. "You know what?"

Holly shook her head. "What?"

"I think she was right," Gail said with a half-hearted laugh. "I am really sorry about that night. You know, I had dreams about that night every single night until today. I should have never walked out like that. I was just hurt and scared and since this is all new to me, I just didn't want to feel the pain any more. I thought,_ 'If I walk out now, I will save myself the pain.'_" Gail smirked in the light of the flash-light and sighed. "I guess I didn't help ease the pain any, did I?"

Holly bit her bottom lip and readjusted her glasses. "No you didn't, but Gail... if you felt nervous and scared, you should have talked to me about it. We could have worked something out, you know? We could have waited until you felt more comfortable about us."

"It's not that I felt uncomfortable about us," Gail replied as pulled her legs up on the table and crossed them underneath her. "I feel uncomfortable about myself. About how I could be the one to make this not work. When it comes to relationships, my track record isn't that great, as you know, and that is what scares me." Gail stared into Holly's eyes as she took a deep breath. "You know, earlier that day, Dov had asked me about our relationship. We were in this old abandoned warehouse... it was part of that Project Accountability thing the Inspector had us working on and I remember he asked me how our relationship was going. He thought since I didn't talk about us, it wasn't going well. When in fact..."

"When in fact you are a person who doesn't like kissing and telling... I understand," Holly said with a grin and nodded her head. "It is perfectly acceptable to separate work life and personal life. But then again..." Holly placed a finger to the corner of her mouth and stared up at the ceiling. "Your colleagues at work _are _your personal-life friends, so you just destroyed the whole not mixing work and home idea."

"Are you finished?" Gail asked as a smile crossed her face.

"Oh..." a sly smile played across the pathologist's lips. "I'm sorry. Please continue." Holly's eyes sparkled with mirth as she watched Gail roll her eyes.

"As I was saying... he thought are relationship was not going well, so he kept pestering me about us until I finally told him."

"What did you tell him?" Holly asked genuinely as she applied more pressure to the wound to staunch the bleeding.

"I told him that it was going great," Gail said with a shrug. "That we didn't fight, which was a first for me and that I felt better. More myself, than I have ever felt my whole life."

Holly smiled and placed a chaste kiss on the side of Gail's mouth. "I promise, when we get out of here, we will talk. We will work everything out because there are a few things we still need to discuss... and we will do all of this together. Deal?"

"Deal."

* * *

"Do you think we need to call ETF?" Traci asked as she stared at the place where the opening of the panic room should be.

"And risk their safety and the integrity of the crime scene?" Steve questioned as he ran his hand over the wall. "We can't do that. I didn't see how large the room was before. It was too dark. If we try to bring them into the equation, we could run the risk of hurting them more than they could already be."

"You're right..." Nash said as she glanced back at the thermostat on the wall. "I think this thing is broken. It shows that the temperature is 36 degrees Celsius and it can't be any more than 22 in here."

"Let me see that," Steve said as he moved closer to Traci. "Shit... keep an eye on that thermostat! If it gets any higher, let me know. I'm going to call for assistance." He said as he paced back and forth across the floor.

"Do you need me to do anything Steve?" Chloe asked as she watched the man fumble with his phone.

"Yeah, try to call some of the others... Dov, Andy. Get Chris and Nick back over here as well. I'm calling the ETF."

"But you said..."

"Forget what I said, Traci," Steve said as he glanced back up at the female detective. "That's my sister in there and I am not going to let them overheat in that thing!"

* * *

"I wish the video feeds didn't short out when you broke the bulb," Holly said as she stared in the direction of the bank of monitors that went dark. "I really wish I could see if they found out we are in here or not."

"I just wish it had cooled off a bit in here once all those electronics went off," Gail said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Do you think there is a refrigerator in here?"

"Why would there be a refrigerator?" Holly retorted as she peered at the officer.

"Well, it's like what you said before..." Gail started as she slowly panned the flash-light across the room. "It's almost as if someone was living in here, and if I was the person that was living in here, I would have a refrigerator in here. I would also make sure I wasn't dumb enough to place a heat lamp or a high wattage bulb or whatever in the light socket."

Holly chuckled slightly as she followed the light across the room. "You know, you might have something there." She frowned as a sudden thought crossed her mind. "I think it has to do with something else besides the light bulb. Train your flash-light on the bed and follow me." Holly walked the short distance to the bed followed closely by Gail. "Be careful where you step. When we are out of here, I want the techs to do a full analysis of this room."

"What are you looking for exactly?" Gail asked as she stopped short behind the pathologist.

"Hmm, not sure..." Holly mumbled as she wiped the sweat from underneath her glasses and set them back on her nose. "This case is getting stranger by the minute, but I have a hunch that this isn't actually a panic room."

"But it looks just like one!" Gail exclaimed as she stared incredulously at the back of her girlfriend's head.

"I know what it looks like, Gail," Holly replied as she knelt beside the bed, careful not to touch anything, she motioned for Peck to move forward a little more. "Shine the light right here," the pathologist whispered as she pointed at the wall over the bed. The harsh light swept up towards the location of Holly's hand as Peck complied. Squinting her eyes at the sudden change in light on the area of the wall she was staring at, Holly muttered, "What the..."

"What the what, Holly?" Gail questioned as she stared at the wall. When the pathologist would not respond, Peck sighed irritably. "Holly. I can't read your mind, so how about telling me what you see."

The pathologist licked her lips and then bit her bottom lip as she continued you to stare. Letting go her lip as she sighed, Holly finally spoke, "Well, it isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it gives strong evidence to my proposal that this isn't a mere panic room. I found a camera lens in the wall."

Gail frowned as she moved closer to the wall. "Let me see." Her injured hand moved towards the wall. Peck brushed a finger over the spot on the wall that Holly pointed out and muttered, "I'll be damned."

Chloe huffed as she paced the floor in between the sofa and the large screen TV in the basement. "I don't care if you were getting ready to leave, Dov. We need you and Andy over at the scene on Richmond Street now. Tell Oliver everything I told you, maybe he can get more people over here so we can get them out of that room." Price pressed the end call button on her phone before her boyfriend could respond.

"Are they on their way?" Traci asked as she pushed off the wall she was leaning on.

"I hope so..." Chloe said with a sigh as she looked around the room. "I just don't get it, Traci. Why would this woman be so paranoid as to have a panic room?" As she continued to stare into space a random thought occurred to her. "Do you know what the weirdest part of this is?"

Nash shrugged her shoulders as she moved closer to the young officer. Steve had went upstairs to escort the forensics team to their van as they took the body from the basement to await a full autopsy at the labs and the two women waited for him and, hopefully, more reinforcements to arrive. The sun was beginning to set and they were no closer to figuring out how to get their friends out of the panic room. Traci had called the owner, Patricia O'Neal, to hopefully find out more information on the panic room while the others were calling up everyone they could down at 15 Division. The owner had her phone turned off, which made Traci suspicious, but then she remembered the woman had just arrived on a flight from Tokyo and had probably turned her phone off. "What's the weirdest part?" Traci asked when she noticed that Chloe did not finish her train of thought.

"The weirdest part is- why is the panic room in the basement in the first place? It makes no sense!" Chloe exclaimed as she pointed at the wall that the room was behind. "Sure, I can understand it being in the master bedroom... you're sleeping and suddenly you hear your alarms going off because some intruder is in your house. What's the first thing you are going to do?" She stared at the detective with wide eyes momentarily before continuing on her hyperactive hypothetical. "You rush to your panic room that is in the same room as the one you are sleeping in!" She started pacing the floor again, her shoulder length red hair flying behind her. "You are not going to wake up, peek around the room and then rush to the basement to the safest place in your house. That makes no sense! By the time you did that, the intruders would notice they are not alone in your house!" She stopped and turned towards Traci who was staring at her as if she was unstable. "What?"

Traci opened her eyes widely and lifted her hands in front of her. "Nothing... I'm just listening to your rant that makes absolute sense, but you never know... she may spend more time down here than in her own bedroom when she is home. Maybe you should calm down a bit Chloe. No need to work yourself up over this. Steve said ETF was on their way and had the perfect solution to our problem..." She lowered her hands and walked over to Price. "Let's just hope they do not ruin too much evidence with this solution."


	7. Chapter 7

Sirens echoed through the silent neighbourhood causing Traci and Chloe to jump. Footsteps on the hardwood floor raced down the steps towards the basement. Steve appeared around the corner brushing his hand through his hair. "That is Dov and Chris followed by McNally and Sam. ETF should be showing up any minute. You guys find anything out?" He looked at both women hopefully.

"Well..." Traci began as she stared at Chloe. "Price came up with an idea that I have ran through my head for the past few minutes, and I think she might have something." Chloe stared at the detective, her eyes wide with shock. Traci stared back at her and motioned. "Well... tell him Chloe."

"Oh..." Chloe said and quickly recovered herself. "Well all I was saying to Traci was that I thought it was pretty strange for the owner to have a panic room in her basement. Most people have them built in their bedrooms, especially since most people's fears are that their houses will be broken into while they are sleeping."

Steve nodded his head and opened his mouth to comment when he heard several footsteps charging down the stairs. "What's going on?" Andy asked as she followed Chris down the steps. "Chris and Dov only told us to get here as soon as possible."

"We have a situation here." Traci replied as she walked over to the group. "Holly and Gail are trapped in what looks to be a panic room. They..."

She was interrupted by the jangling tune of Steve's phone. "One minute guys, I think it is ETF."

* * *

Gail sighed as she walked back to the table. She left her flash-light with Holly and the pathologist pointed the light in the direction the officer was walking. "Do you think they are still out there?"

Holly rolled her eyes and turned the flash-light back to the cot in front of her. "Of course they are out there, honey. You know they wouldn't leave us in here." The pathologist placed the light on the floor and reached into her left back pocket. Pulling out a pair of gloves, she put them on and reached for the light again. "I bet they will get us out in the next hour." She lowered herself to the floor and lifted the coverlet on the cot.

"What are you doing?" Gail asked as she saw the silhouette of her girlfriend on the floor.

"I am trying to ascertain the point of origin," Holly replied as she continued digging under the bed.

"The point of origin of what?" Gail asked from her perch on the table. She had started loosening the make-shift bandage Holly had created with her shirt.

"Of the heat." Holly's reply came back slightly muffled as she looked underneath the cot. "There has to be another source," she said, more to herself than to Peck. Returning her focus back on Gail, she continued, "The light bulb was key, yes, but there had to be an alternate source. We weren't in here that long for it to heat up as quickly as it did with just the heat lamp as the only source. Also, stop playing with the bandage. I know it is a bit too much, but at least it is helping to stop the bleeding."

She stood up from and dusted her knees off. "This place is getting weirder by the second." She walked over to Gail and sat down beside her, "Why would a person have a panic room installed with a heat lamp that also triggers another heat source... also, a camera installed into the wall of the room, and an inoperable landline?"

Gail shrugged her shoulders and placed her uninjured hand on Holly's knee. "Maybe it's not a panic room."

* * *

"What?!" Nearly everyone said at the same time when Steve ended his phone conversation.

"ETF is not coming..." he said as he placed his phone back in his pocket, "There's a bomb scare downtown and everyone is tied up there. They received the call just after mine. This thing is supposed to be huge, so they can not spare anyone until they get that cleared away."

"So what do we do in the mean time? Just stand around staring at each other until they show up?" Dov asked as he stared at the male detective.

"No... I have a better idea," Steve said as he started to take his jacket off. "Chris I need you to see if you can find any tools in the garage. If we remove this wood panelling from the front of the room's entrance, we may be able to find the keypad for this thing or at least the hinges or something. Dov, see if you can get ahold of Mrs. O'Neal again... if we can find the keypad, I want the passcode to this thing." He turned away from the two guys and focused on Chloe. "I need you to contact Nick. Ask him if he remembers anything that Patricia might have said to him while he drove her to the hotel. Also, ask him to go check on her before reporting back to the scene, okay?"

Steve started to walk towards when he stopped and called back out to Chris. Diaz poked his head out from behind the corner of the wall that hid the stairs. "What's up, Steve?"

The detective placed a hand on his head, "I just remembered... Did you and Epstein find anything out about the vehicles?"

Chris took out his notepad and flipped the pages until he found what he was looking for. "Oh yeah... the SUV belongs to Mrs. Patricia O'Neil and the green car by the garage belongs to a Mrs. Anna Schlenz. Anything else, Steve?"

"No... go and come back with those tools."

"Schlenz... why does that name sound familiar," Chloe muttered to herself as she stared into space. "I got it! The neighbour who called in the 911 was name Gregory Schlenz! Do you think the car could be his wife's?"

"I'm almost ready to believe that the woman we took out earlier was Anna," Traci said with a frown. "Wonder why the husband didn't report her missing? Chloe, why don't you visit Mr. Schlenz again..." Nash shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe he had a momentary lapse of judgement when he first spoke with you."

Sam who had been quiet the whole time moved from the wall beside the TV and spoke, "I'll call Nick. I think Traci might be on to something about questioning this neighbour again. What's up, Dov?"

Epstein walked into the room and shook his head. "She's still not answering. Maybe it is a fake number, because I am not getting a voice mail option."

"Never mind that right now," Sam said as he pulled his phone out of its case, "When I call Collins, I will tell him to swing by the hotel he dropped Mrs. O'Neil off at and bring her back here. Maybe then she will be more inclined to answer us."

Steve nodded his head as he listened to his fellow detective. Everything made sense and it would be better than waiting for the woman to answer their calls, _Why didn't I think of that before? _He thought as looked at the wall in front of him, _It's because my sister is stuck behind this wall, in a room that we can't get into and it is messing with my head. _He glanced over to Dov who was standing off to the side of the stairway and called out to him, "Epstein! Why don't you help Price with her interview with the neighbour. I am sure with both of you there, he may be a bit more accommodating to our need of information."

"What do you need me to do?" Andy asked as she watched Steve test the strength of the wall in front of the sealed panic room.

"Look around the room, McNally..." Steve said as he glanced back at the thermostat on the wall. The temperature had increased slightly since he first realised that it was actually an indicator for the interior of the panic room.

"Anything in particular I am looking for?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure what I want you to look for." He said with a sigh, "Maybe there is something we have overlooked while we were in here before. Something that may can help us figure out how to get them out of there."

Andy looked about the room and nodded her head, _Right... look for something that could help us get Gail and Holly out of a reinforced locked room. Sure, I am certain that something will stand out soon. _She thought as she rolled her eyes and began to start at the edge of the room closest to the staircase.

* * *

Chloe and Dov walked up the steps onto the porch of Mr. Schlenz's American Foursquare house and rang the doorbell. "Nice house," Dov muttered as he stared into the bay window beside the door and could see the TV playing in the dark living room. "Wonder if he is going to pretend he isn't home?"

Suddenly the porch and the vestibule were washed in the fluorescent glow of light. "See Dov, you always go to the pessimistic view on life," Chloe said with a smile as she stared at her boyfriend and partner.

"I prefer to view things with an edge of caution, Chloe. It isn't pessimism... it's called realism," Dov replied as he stared through the frosted glass of the front door.

The door opened to reveal a haggard Gregory Schlenz. Chloe noticed the dapper appearance of the man she had seen earlier that day had been replaced with the visage of a person who had lost everything. His hair, which was slicked back only mere hours ago, was sticking out everywhere and his shirt and slacks were rumpled as if he had fell asleep in them. "Officers..." Gregory said as he stared at the two people in front of him. "Sorry for my appearance. I wasn't expecting visitors this late at night." He stared down at his feet, which were bare, before glancing back at them, "Come in."

Dov, followed by Chloe, walked into the foyer and looked around the house, "Were you sleeping Mr. Schlenz?"

Gregory rubbed his eyes and nodded his head, "Yeah... today has been a pretty exhausting day. After you left..." He gestured towards Price before he continued, "I received a call from the animal hospital. I had to take Jessie there yesterday because she wouldn't eat and I was worried that something might have been wrong."

"Who's Jessie?" Chloe asked as she closed the door behind her.

"That's my three month old Labrador Retriever. I've had her for two months now and this was the first time she had not touched her food when I gave it to her. Luckily, she started to eat when the vet's assistant gave her food. They told me they wanted to keep her a couple more days to see if anything changes."

"You seem quite attached to that dog, Mr. Schlenz," Dov replied as he narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him.

"I am," he muttered as he walked towards the living room. Plopping down onto the sofa, Gregory stared at the two officers who were still standing in his living room. "Please... take a seat, officers. I would offer you coffee, but my machine is on the fritz."

Chloe shook her head, "That is okay, Mr. Schlenz." With a smile she moved closer into the room and looked around. She glanced at the pictures around the room and was momentarily stunned at the fact there were no pictures of his wife adorning the walls or shelving space in the room. Taking a deep breath, she decided to plunge ahead with the new idea, "I bet you wife was happy to hear that the dog is doing better."

The man snorted as he stood up from the sofa, "My wife left me last year. Too incompatible, she said. I haven't seen her since then... good riddance too."

"Well... if you haven't seen her since then, why is her car parked out in front of your neighbour's garage?" Dov asked as he stared at the man in front of him.

Gregory's eyes widened as he looked at the officers. "I...I..." He stuttered and then turned from them and ran towards the back of the house.

"Why do they have to always run?" Dov asked as he started to chase the man.

As the two men ran through the house, Gregory tripped over a raised edge of a runner in the middle of the hallway and fell to the floor. Dov landed on top of the man, pulled Gregory's hands behind his back and handcuffed him.

"What the hell, man?" Gregory exclaimed as he struggled on the floor.

"We were only asking a few questions, sir," Chloe began as she walked towards the two men. "You were the one who decided to run away from an officer. Do you have something to hide, Mr. Schlenz?"

"No, why would I?" He huffed as he finally settled down on the floor. "I told you that I haven't seen her in over a year!"

"Then why did you run away when we mentioned that your wife's car was at the neighbour's?" Chloe asked as Dov lifted the guy off the floor.

Gregory Schlenz remained silent as Epstein walked him out of the house. She clicked her radio on, "Detective Nash? Detective Peck?"

"_Go ahead, Price," _Traci replied over the radio.

"We have Mr. Greogory Schlenz in custody and are taking him to the station. When we had asked him about his wife's car, he tried to make a break for it out the back door., Price responded.

"_Okay. Stay at the station and see what you can get out of him. I think we have stumbled on a lead ourselves."_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note: Sorry about the wait! I have four other stories on here that I split my time between and I also had finally caught up with myself and had to finish this chapter before I could post it. I really hope you all enjoy this chapter! Hopefully, it will reveal a bit more as to why this story is named 'Panic'!**_

* * *

Traci finished talking with Chloe on the radio and stared at the screen in front of her as the blurry image of Gail and Holly illuminated by a flash-light appeared on the TV. "Andy..."

"Yeah, Traci?" Andy said as she stood up from looking underneath the sofa.

"What did you just hit?" Nash asked still staring at the screen behind McNally.

"Just a remote control," she replied as she lifted the object in the air. "I accidentally leaned my elbow on it when I was looking under the couch." Sighing to herself, she continued, "Guys... I don't think this is working. This is the cleanest house I have ever seen. My house would never get this clean in a hundred years! Can you believe there wasn't even a dust bunny under that sofa?" Andy stopped and stared at her friend. "Tracy... are you okay? At least say something."

Sam and Steve stopped what they were doing as they caught a glimpse of the TV behind McNally. "What?" Andy gave a faint chuckle, " Ah... I get it... trying to pull a joke on me, right? What? Now am I supposed to look down at my uniform and expect to find all this dust or something on me? I'm not a rookie any more guys... it won't work." She said with a smile but as the seconds wore on, she realised that they were not staring at her, but what was behind her.

Turning around, Andy immediately saw what everyone else had noticed beforehand, "What the hell?" She mumbled to herself as she moved to the side of the screen so everyone could see the two women trapped in the panic room.

"Guys..." Tracy said softly, "I think this isn't a panic room."

Steve snapped out of his shock, "Sam... see what is taking Chris so damned long with the tools!" He started to beat on the wall, "Gail! Holly!"

"I don't think they hear you, Steve," Andy said as she waited for a reaction from the two women.

"You're right..." he said with a sigh. "Andy see if you can call Collins again. I want him to bring her to the station and figure out what the hell she is up to in this house!"

* * *

"You know," Holly began as she stared at Gail's injured hand. "I can fix that for you when we get out of here."

"Right..." Gail drawled. "As if I am going to let you suture my hand."

Holly rolled her eyes and smiled. "Well, I am a doctor you know. Stitching your hand would be the easiest thing I do all day."

"You are a doctor for dead people, Holly," Peck replied with a smirk but quickly sobered once she played back what she said. "Not that I don't adore you or think that you are not actually a doctor, but... you _are_ a doctor for dead people."

Holly nodded her head, "I understand... my girlfriend adores me, but is afraid I will not do a good job on the sutures because I am a pathologist." She barely contained her smile as she watched Gail roll her eyes.

"Forget I said anything." Gail muttered as she slid off the table, "Now do you have any idea as to what the hell this thing actually is?"

Holly ran her hand through her hair and sighed. "I have thought about it for a while and... honestly? I have no clue."

"Well, I have thought about it and it feels like a damn sauna that has a broken door," Gail stated as she wipes the sweat off her face. "At least it is a dry heat though. I don't think I could deal with it as long as I have if there was humidity as well."

The pathologist's eyes widened as a thought crossed her mind. "Oh shit!" She exclaimed as she jumped off the table and scrambled over to her bag. "Why didn't I think of it sooner! Shit, I hope it isn't too late..." Holly rummaged through the bag and pulled out two HEPA masks and tossed on to Gail. Shoving the apparatus over her face she glared at the officer. "Gail... please honey... put it on, now!"

"What the hell is this all about, Holly?" Gail questioned as she slowly put the mask over her mouth. "I swear if this is some sort of joke, it isn't very funny."

"It's no joke, Gail," Holly replied. Her voice sounding muffled through the mask. "You gave me an idea as to what it could be, and quite frankly, the idea really scares me... especially with the amount of time we have spent in this room... who knows what it could be. How hot do you think it is in here exactly?" Holly shook her head dismissively and said, "Never mind. I think I have an idea as to how hot it is in here." She grabbed the flashlight off the table and slowly shined it over the top of the door. "Help me reach the vent again. I need to be one hundred percent sure on this before I start panicking."

"Tell me what is going on first," Gail replied as she stared at her lover. "Don't keep me out of the loop just because you think I won't understand." She gestured with her injured hand which caused Holly to gasp through her mask.

"Fuck..." Holly muttered as she raced back to her bag and pulled out several pairs of gloves.

"What are you..."

"Don't touch anything with your injured hand, Gail," she said as she interrupted the blonde. "Put these on now." The pathologist walked over to the officer and handed her the gloves. "Shit... I will help you, but let me put on gloves as well."

"Holly... can you please tell what is going on? What has you so scared?" Gail asked as she watched her lover place the latex gloves on her hands before she reached over and slowly unwrapped the officer's hand.

"I'm not scared," Holly replied though her voice betrayed her emotions. "I just want to take extra precautions just in case."

* * *

Traci stared at the screen as the remaining officers rush back in forth behind her. The cacophony of hammers and crowbars echoed behind her. "What the hell is Holly doing?" Nash asked no one in particular as she continued to watch the two women in the room.

"What was that?" Sam asked as he came up behind the detective.

"What is Holly doing?" Traci repeated not taking her eyes off the screen as she watched the pathologist put gloves on Gail's hands. "They have masks on and are now putting on gloves. I just don't get it."

"Holy shit..." Steve muttered as he came up behind the two detectives. "Forget calling Mrs. O'Neil. We might have a bigger problem on our hands!" He ran towards the stairs away from the rest of the group and they could hear the front door slam behind him.

"Where's he going?" Andy asked as she stopped hammering on the wooden panel in front of her. Sweat trickled down her face as she stared at the backs of her friends. "Hey... what's going on in there exactly? They look as if they are about to do a science experiment or something."

"Shit!" Traci exclaimed as her eyes widened and understanding hit her full on. "Don't do anything else Andy!"

"Okay..." Andy replied slowly as she lowered the hammer to the ground. "Was it something I said?"

Sam shrugged his shoulders, but understanding slowly crept over him, as Traci walked up the stairs her phone in hand as she quickly hit the speed dial. "I think you might have said something that made her worry just a bit."

* * *

Upstairs Traci stalked back and forth in front of the sofa. "I don't care how long it takes you to find her, Nick! We have to find this Patricia!" She exclaimed as she gripped her phone tighter. "You did go to the hotel you dropped her off at, right?"

_'Of course I did, Traci. Where else do you think I would go first?' _Nick replied slightly annoyed. _'The front desk told me that she hung around the reception area until I left and then called a cab.'_

"Did they say where the cab took her?" Traci asked as her mind reeled with all the possibilities of what could happen to her friends in the room.

_'No. He said she had used her own phone and then threw it in the trash after she was finished. He thought it was really weird that she would do such a thing.'_

"Please tell me..."

_'Of course I bagged it. It's evidence after all, but why are you all so gung-ho to get in touch with her?' _Nick asked. Through his side of the phone, Traci could hear the slamming of a car door and an engine turn over.

"Are you in your car now?" Nash asked though she already knew the answer.

_'Yeah... do you want me to meet you guys at the house or do you want me to drop by the station?' _

"Drop by the station and give that phone to Dov. He might be able to get a tech on it or might can figure something out about it himself, but I think it might be a dead end... probably a burner since she threw it out. I want you to stay there with Dov and Chloe." Traci sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. "I think it has gotten a bit more complicated here than we first thought."

_'What do you mean by that?' _

"I mean that..." Traci trailed off as she saw Steve enter the front door. "Steve just got back in... I will call you back when I find out more."

_'But...'_

Nash hung up her phone and walked over to the haggard looking detective. "So what do we do now?"

Steve huffed as he stared up at the ceiling in the living-room. He closed his eyes and breathed deep before answering. "I called the morgue and told them to take every precaution known to modern science with the body."

"I bet they had a lot of questions when you told them that," Traci said with a grim smile.

"Actually, I told them what we saw on the screen first and they readily replied with the request." He puts his hands in his pockets and stared at his girlfriend. "I also called in a couple of favours and a team will arrive shortly. Hopefully, Holly can determine what is going on in the mean time."

"So what do we do now, Steve?" Traci asked as she bit her lower lip.

He took his hands out of his pockets and sigh. "We wait. That is all that we can do at this point."


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author's Note: First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who favourited, followed or reviewed this story! I didn't think I would get quite the response from the last chapter! Secondly, I would like to apologise for the brevity of this chapter... thought I would build a bit more tension into the story! :) As if it needs any more, yes? Also, I recently noticed an error in Patricia O'Neil's name... I can't believe I made that error after the fact that I have all the original characters' names written down in my notes for this story! For that, I apologise again. So without further ado... here is the chapter!**_

* * *

Back at the station Chloe looked on through the one-way mirror as Dov tried to interrogate Gregory Schlenz. The man had refused to speak and even refused a cup of water even though he had been in the interrogation room for over two hours. "Look, I know my rights officer," Gregory spat as he stared at Dov. "I don't have to say a word to you. If I do it can be held against me."

Dov nodded his head. "Yes, that is part of your Miranda Rights, Mr. Schlenz. I told you them when we arrested you. Look, I don't know why you ran from us when all we were trying to do was ask you a few more questions. You do know what that means, right?" Epstein drawled as he stared at the man.

"I know what it means," the man said as he rolled his eyes. "And I know what this means too." He pointed to the cup. "You want to take my DNA without my consent and knowledge. I wanna call my lawyer."

"Fair enough. I'll get the phone." The officer stood up and took the cup of water with him. He paused halfway to the door and put the cup to his lips and downed the contents of the cup. "Ah... I needed that. Thanks for the water, Gregory!"

The man in the chair seethed as he watched Dov walk out the door. Chloe suppressed a giggle as the door swung open to her room. "Well, what did you think?" Epstein asked as he stared through the one-way mirror.

"I think that water bit was horrible," Price said with a smile.

He smirked as he nodded his head towards Schlenz. "I think he is hiding something. From what we know, Mrs. O'Neil knew his wife was around... why else would she ask her to watch over her house while she was away? Also, he ran when we told him that her car was parked in O'Neil's yard. It is just strange I tell you."

"I agree with you, Dov," Chloe stated as she turned to look at her boyfriend. "So who do you think he will actually call when we give him the phone?"  
He shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Maybe his lawyer... maybe his mistress. With some of these people we bring in, I can never tell. Keep an eye on him, I am going to get a phone."

As Dov started to walk towards the door, it burst open revealing a slightly dishevelled Nick. "There you guys are!" He said as he closed the door behind him. "I have been looking for you all over the station."

"Did you check with booking at all when you got in?" Dov questioned as he stared at his friend.

Collins shook his head. "I came through the front and searched the whole place for you." He frowned when he realised the logic behind what he did. "Maybe I should have spoke with booking or anyone else actually. I bet a lot of people think I am actually crazy now, especially how I ran through the place looking for you."

Dov took a step back while eyeing Collins warily. "You ran through the whole place without thinking how everyone would react? Jeez, you really must be worried about everything that is going on."

Collins shook his head. "Traci called me before I came back to the station. She said things are a bit more complicated than we actually thought and with Mrs. O'Neil skipping out, she might be right."

"Wait..." Chloe stated as she stared at Collins. "Mrs. O'Neil left the hotel? Why would she do something like that?"

The ex-military man shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, but I have a weird feeling about this whole thing." He held up the evidence bag containing the phone that he picked out of the hotel trash bin. "The guy at the front desk at the hotel said Patricia O'Neil used this to call the cab that picked her up. Traci asked me to bring it to you, Dov. She said you might know someone who could maybe get something out of it, but she is certain it might be a dead end."

Epstein grabbed the bag from Collins and inspected the phone inside. "Hmm, it's your basic flip phone. Maybe we can get something off of its records, but not sure if Traci thinks it's a burner. Let's take it to the lab first before trying anything else with it."

"Why the lab?" Collins asked as he watched the other man step into the hall.

"Might have other prints on it besides hers," Dov replied over his shoulder. "If she pulled a runner, there might be someone else in on this too. Shit..." He paused right outside the interrogation room that Gregory was in. "Hey... Collins!"

"Yeah?"

"You wanna get a phone for this guy in here?" Epstein asked as he pointed towards the closed door. "He wants to speak with his lawyer, but if this is as important as you say, then I am going to be awhile. And who knows... maybe your interrogation skills are better than mine." Dov continued walking down the hall and turned the corner towards the evidence room.

Chloe smiled at Nick when he turned towards her. "It's worth a try. You know how Dov is..." She walked toward the door and stopped as she reached for the handle. "I'll go get the phone, try talking to him for a bit... you may be able to loosen him up some."

* * *

Gail looked up at Holly as the pathologist stood on her leg again to reach the vent. With a piece of paper in her gloved hand, the doctor tried her unspoken theory. "Shit..." she muttered as the paper stuck to the vent. She grabbed the paper from the vent and stared down at Gail. The blonde officer could hear the fear in her voice when she said. "Help me back down." Gail steadied herself as she reached her uninjured hand up for her girlfriend to grab a hold of.

"Holly, you are going to have to tell me sooner or later what is going on inside that head of yours," the officer said once she raised herself up from a kneeling position.

"I..." Holly started as she looked into Gail's eyes but quickly turned away when another idea flickered in her brain. "Give me a moment, honey." The pathologist knelt down on the floor in front of the door. She moved her body as close to the door as she could and waited for a few seconds before she stood back up. Her eyes were riddled with panic when she looked back at Gail. "I think you should sit down for this."

Gail huffed, but complied as she walked across the floor to sit on the tabletop. "Look, whatever it is, I can handle it Holly. I'm a cop. We handle tough situations all the time. Hell, I was kidnapped before! I've been quarantined, and shot at. So whatever it is you have to tell me, go ahead."  
"You're right." Holly replied with a sigh. She stood in front of her girlfriend for a few moments before she started pacing the length of the room. "I should have told you my thoughts before I decided to test the theory..."

"What was it that I said that made you run around like a hamster on coffee?" Gail asked playfully when she noticed that her girlfriend's voice was quavering under the mask. "Also..." she raised her hands in front of her. "Why do I have to wear two pairs of gloves?"

Holly adjusted her glasses with her gloved hand then crossed her arms in front of her. "A thought... a really scary thought crossed my mind when you mentioned something about the temperature of this room. It is stifling yet arid. It reminded me of a few of the rooms that I had visited at the medical lab while taking a few courses in virology."

Gail stared at Holly. "When you say virology... you mean..."

"The study of viruses, yes," Holly said as she continued to pace the floor, being mindful of the bloodstains near the doorway. "So when that thought crossed my mind, I had to react in the only possible way. I had to protect us just in case it was true. Then I needed to test the theory after we took the necessary precautions."

"And the conclusion to your theory?" Gail queried as she felt a tightness settle in her chest.

"This is a negative pressure room. The vent..." Holly pointed to the vent over the door. "Is withdrawing the air from this room, while a steady stream is flowing through the bottom of the door."

"If there is an opening big enough for air to stream through, then why can't they hear us when we called out to them before?" The officer questioned as she tried to sort out everything that the pathologist was trying to tell her.

Holly shook her head. "I think the air is being feed through from another vent directly under the door, so it is still airtight in a sense. The air was warm yet stale as if it is be manufactured specifically for this room."  
"Oh..." Gail said as dread started to wrap around her. "So... what does it mean if this room has negative pressure?"

"It could mean several things." Holly said as she wrung her gloved hands together. "In some rooms... like in a museum, it keeps important and ancient pieces of art from deteriorating because it keeps the pollutants that riddle our modern atmosphere from entering the room. In a hospital, it keeps patients, who are staying within the hospital for certain periods of time, from being exposed to other pathogens that another patient may have, which cuts down on patients getting sick while in the hospital."  
"And in the situation you described with viruses?" Peck asked though she did not wish to hear the answer.

"The negative pressure creates a bio-containment room," Holly stated in a hollow voice. "It keeps a virus from infecting the rest of the labs. They normally use it for the higher level labs."

"And what sort of viruses would be housed in those labs?"

"The sort of viruses you don't want to escape."


	10. Chapter 10

_**Author's Note: Sorry for the wait! Things have been a bit hectic... work, home-life, the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition... well, I think everyone gets the idea. The chapter is a bit short, but I felt what is next couldn't be placed within this chapter without making it overly long... you all will see what I mean when I post the next chapter... until then!**_

* * *

Steve sighed as he ended the call on his phone. "That was the morgue," he said to no one in particular.

"And?" Traci asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"They are prepping the vic for autopsy now." He elaborated as he paced back and forth in front of the sofa.

"But the body was sent to them over four hours ago!" Traci exclaimed in a huff.

"They were backlogged," Steve replied as he stopped his pacing and stared at the screen in front of him. "They are running her prints now to determine I.D."

"Didn't Mrs. O'Neil say that the next door neighbour, Mrs. Schlenz, house-sits for her when she is gone out of the country?" Andy asked as she joined the two detectives. "So, why do they have to check her prints?"

"It's pretty much standard procedure when a vic is rolled into the morgue without identification, Andy," Sam replied as he walked over to join the group. "Right now, we can't be certain it is her because O'Neil didn't see the body to give a positive ID and besides..." He shoved his hands into his back pockets and shrugged. "I don't trust Mrs. O'Neal enough to listen to anything she says."

"I agree with Detective Swarek," a voice said from the middle of the stairs causing the group to jump. They listened as footsteps echoed on the wood until they saw a pair of polished black boots and crisp black pants through the slats in the banister.

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Steve exclaimed as he moved to brush non-existent dust from his jacket.

"I received a call from Staff Sergeant Shaw," Superintendent Peck said as she stepped off the last step and peered at the group. "What I don't understand is why didn't you call me first? I could have rushed the autopsy at the very least. At the most, my daughter could already be out of that damned room and on her way to a hospital to be monitored."

"Mother, I..."

"Don't say a word, Steve," Elaine interrupted as she walked towards the television on the far wall. "Is that video footage of them in the room?"

"No ma'am," Sam said as he moved closer. "It's real-time."

"My god..." Elaine muttered as she walked closer. "At least she has someone in there to keep her company."

* * *

Gail allowed what Holly said to sink in. after a few moments, she spoke again, "What about the bloodstains on the floor? I remember when you checked the body, you said you noticed nothing abnormal with the body. Besides a few torn ligaments in the wrist and..."

"And petechial haemorrhaging of the conjuntivae," Holly replied, finishing the blonde's sentence.

"Then why is there a trail of blood in here and to where the body is located? You didn't see any other damage did you?"

"No, and that is another thing that concerns me." Holly grabbed the flash-light from Gail and pointed it at the floor. "Do you see how dark the blood is? Granted, it has been sometime since it has been expelled, but in a room as chilly as this basement is, the blood would have a harder time to dry up. Also, take a look at the shape of the splatter. No arcs, except for this one spot here." The pathologist turned the light to the first spatter. "But, as you can see, the arcs are not characteristic of arterial spray or of transfer from a blunt object swinging. There large, but still had a lot of force behind it. Like someone coughing up blood, or possibly vomiting it up."

"But what would cause so much blood and why wasn't there any on the victim?" Gail asked as she stared at the stains. "How much blood do you think the person lost?"

"Well, without the tech being able to come into this room since we were locked inside it, I can not give an accurate assessment. Offhand, I would say a little over a pint? But that is just speculation. The techs would have to come in here and rip the carpet up to see how much blood had soaked through to the wood or concrete, or whatever is actually underneath in order to give an accurate amount." Holly took a deep breath and stretched her neck. "I wish they would hurry up and get us out of here."

"Me too," Gail said as she looked over at the pathologist. "I have another question."

"Go ahead. We might as well keep ourselves entertained while we wait for them to rescue us anyway."

"What could cause someone who is apparently healthy looking in death to 'expel blood' in the manner you suggested?" Gail questioned as she placed her hand on Holly's thigh and squeezed gently. The blonde's nerves were going haywire, but she could never show her girlfriend how much everything was upsetting her.

"Well, to be honest... anything could." Holly said as she stared intently at the police officer. "A person who is absolutely normal on the outside could drop dead at a moment's notice. It all has to do with what's on the inside of the person. For example, this woman you found today could have died because of a broken rib that punctured her lung. That could cause the petechial haemorrhaging... she would have died of asphyxiation which causes the tiny capillaries and blood vessels to rupture in certain areas of the body. I really wouldn't know until I was able to open her up though. I really hate speculating any of this. But I think you are wondering more about what sort of virus would wreak such havoc." Holly quirked an eyebrow as she looked at Gail, when the officer nodded, she continued. "There are several actually that could cause it. We can rule out five in particular... that being the filoviruses. One of them, human's can not catch from our primate cousins and the other four... well, let's just say that the outcome is a lot more... hmm, well, let's just say that it is really nasty and is definitely not the cause. Smallpox, on the other hand, could cause what we saw with the victim, but I did not see the telltale flush on her extremities. Plus, smallpox has been eradicated from nature. The world's only supply of the virus is supposed to be in Atlanta at the CDC and in Novosibirsk at Vector, which is in Russia. Also, we can not rule out other arenaviruses or hantaviruses at this point either. There is a large spectrum of haemorrhagic fevers that we can not rule out at this point either."

Gail narrowed her eyes. "So this could just be something as simple as a punctured lung or as serious as a deadly virus?"

"Exactly," Holly stated with a sigh. "Which is why I wish to err on the side of caution when dealing with all of this. I want us to both be protected from the even the slightest possibility of viral infection. There is a saying in medical sciences... 'When you hear hoof-beats, think horses, not zebras', but there are several instances where you should think zebras... and I do believe we may have stumbled across a zebra."


	11. Chapter 11

The phone rang insistently as Dov and Chloe stared at it in the clear evidence bag. "Are you going to answer it?" Chloe asked as she continued to peer at the device.

"Why would I answer it?" Dov retorted as he swivelled the chair he was sitting in towards the computer monitor.

"Well... one of the reasons I think you should answer it is: we can finally figure out who this Mrs. O'Neil is working with... another reason... the phone number on the display is the precinct's number."

"Shit!" Dov wheeled the chair back towards the phone and snatched it out of the evidence bag. He pressed the accept button.

"_Took you long enough to answer the damned phone. Don't talk just listen..." _the voice said through the phone. _"You have to get out of town... the cops have me locked up and I think they may be on to us. Now, don't start... they don't have enough on me to hold me much longer... when I get out, I will meet you at the cabin." _

Dov stared at the phone after the call ended, a smug smile etched itself on his face.

"So..." Chloe began as she waited for her boyfriend to let her in on the news. "Who was it?"

"I think you can guess who it was." Dov replied as he stood up and placed the phone back into the bag. "It is time to visit our friend again."

The two officers left the evidence room quietly as they quickly walked back towards the interrogation room.

"Start talking," Dov said as he entered the room and stared at Gregory.

"I don't have anything to say to you," Gregory insisted as he turns in his chair to face the wall beside him.

"Oh, I think you do," Dov replied as he threw the evidence bag containing the phone on the table.

Mr. Schlenz's eyes grew large as he turned to face the noise and stared at the device on the table. "What the hell is that?" He asked trying to sound innocent, but failing miserably.

"We know you know what it is," Chloe stated as she sat down in one of the chairs on the other side of the table. "What we want to know is... why did you do it? Why did you two plan to murder your wife? And where is this cabin?"

The suspect folded his arms across his chest and muttered, "I want a lawyer." Gregory stared sullenly at the table while the two officers walked out of the room and closed the door.

"Ugh! We almost had him!" Chloe exclaimed as she threw her hands in the air and allowed them fall against her thighs. "When you threw the phone on the table, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head! Man, it was awesome!"

Dov smirked as he started to walk down the hall. "Yeah, it was pretty cool, wasn't it? I just wish that he cracked. It would have made this a lot easier."

"Well, at least we were able to get one thing out of him," Price said as she followed her boyfriend down the corridor.

"What is that?"

"The dead woman isn't his wife."

Epstein stopped in his tracks and turned to face the female officer. A look of confusion etched across his face. "How did you get that from our conversation with him?"

Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "It was pretty simple to figure out, I guess. When you asked him why they had planned to murder his wife, he looked really confused. You just have to read people's facial expressions." She thought for a moment as she stared down the hallway, her eyes not really focusing on anything. "Also, when we were at his house, when he mentioned that he hasn't spoke to his wife in a while, he kept fidgeting. It was like he was lying horribly."

"Why didn't you bring this up sooner?" Dov questioned as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I really didn't think about it until now really." The officer said as she shrugged again. "And besides, it is hard to think with Gail and Holly stuck in that room."

"When will they get us out of here?" Gail moaned as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with her forearm. "I would have thought we would be out of here by now."

"They are probably taking every precaution necessary, Sweetie," Holly said reassuringly though she did not feel the least bit calm herself.

"I just wish this was all over and that we were back at your place," the blonde said with a little bit of wistfulness etching her voice. "Why did they have to pair me with Chloe today?"

Holly laughed slightly as she turned to look at Gail. "Well, I am glad that you were paired with her today."

"Why would you be glad?"

"Well, if she was paired with someone else, I might be in this locked room with someone else and we would have never patched things up." Holly replied as she continued to stare at the officer.

"That is true."

The couple continued to stare at each other, trying desperately to remember every nuance of the other as if this were their last day on Earth. Suddenly, air hissed from the doorway and the door slid open causing both women to jump off the table and towards the door. They walked tentatively towards the door and were greeted by Traci and Steve on the other side.

"What the hell just happened?" Traci asked as she took a step back from the two women.

"I think that may be the best thing you should do right about now," Holly said as she watched the detective step away from them. "But then again, both you and Steve had went into the room to see the blood splatter on the floor. Even that small amount of time could have contaminated you as well. Has anyone contacted the morgue lately?"

"What did you guys do to get out of there?" Sam asked as he moved closer to the group.

"You might want to stay back, Sam," Holly said as she backed further into the room she had just been released from. "The door must be on a timer, because we didn't touch anything. And I assume you guys didn't touch anything either."

"No, we didn't," Steve replied as he looked over his shoulder when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.  
"Just got off the phone with the morgue. Everything was clear, we really need to find a way to get them..." Elaine stopped mid-sentence when she saw her daughter and Holly in front of the open doorway. "Gail!" She exclaimed and tried to reach for her daughter's hand. Gail recoiled from the touch and her mother rolled her eyes. "Relax, Gail. I just got off the phone with the morgue, they had finished up the autopsy on the victim. There were no signs of any problems... with the exception of her left lung, which was punctured. She was a very healthy woman until she ran across whoever had killed her."

Holly pulled off her gloves and mask. "So they ruled it a homicide?"

"Based on the bruising, yes. There was a particularly interesting bruise that captured the tread-marks of the assailant's shoe... antemortem, by the way. And they where able to capture some very clear pictures after they were able to distinguish it from the livor mortis."

"How about an ID?" Gail asked as she breathed a sigh of relief and pulled the mask off of her face when she saw Holly do the same.

"That's the interesting part. It seems that the victim is a Dr. Patricia O'Neal. She used to work..."

"Wait... wasn't that the name of the woman you interviewed earlier today?" Andy asked Traci as she moved closer to the group. McNally's eyes grew wide as she realised that she had just interrupted _the _Elaine Peck. "I am soo sorry Superintendent Peck... I just...I... I'm just going to shut up now."  
Traci glanced at the Superintendent who nodded her head in consent. "Yes, that is the name that the suspect had given us. Without a doubt, this woman, who claimed to be Mrs. O'Neal, is now a suspect in all of this. How were they able to identify the prints, Superintendent Peck?"

"I was just about to get to that," Elaine said as she looked towards Andy. "Dr. O'Neal used to work with the U.S. Army at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland. They have all personnel's fingerprints on file, so it was only a matter of minutes before they got a hit." She looked about the basement and her eyes lingered on the room that her daughter was trapped in. "None of it explains this room you two were trapped in though."

"It explains some things to me," Holly said as she moves away from the room. "Fort Detrick is the home of USAMRIID, also known as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. She was used to working in negative-pressure rooms, but it was very unlikely she would bring her work home. Like, myself, her work wouldn't allow her to take it home... unless it was paperwork she did in her office. Did she still work there?"

"Early retirement," Elaine said as she cleared her throat. "When we get back to the station, I was going to look into the reason why... we find out that, we may find out the reason why she had this room. I am going to post surveillance around the house, to make sure no one enters. Let's head back to the station, except for you two..." She turned to look at Holly and Gail. "I think you two had enough excitement for one day."


	12. Chapter 12

_**Author's note: I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed, favourited, or followed this story! It first started out as something that was going to be a lot shorter than this... this sort of story is not exactly like the rest of the stories I write, but I was willing to try something a bit different and I guess it worked! As many of you will notice, I am tying in a lot of things that occur in season five into this story to create a world that is still canon, but sped up to fit the needs of this story. I hope you all enjoy this chapter!**_

* * *

A faint light grew larger as the door opened more to the darkened interior of Holly's house. Taking a deep breath, the pathologist sighed as she smelled the calming scent of lavender that permeated the entire edifice. "I am so glad to be home right now."

"I just wish mom didn't take me off the case like that," Gail grumbled after following Holly into the house.

"You would think that after several hours trapped in that godforsaken room and then another two hours having our statements taken, you would at least be grateful to get away from that house. And besides, your mother is just looking out for your well-being." Holly replied softly as she dropped her bag onto the sofa and landed beside it with a sigh. "She isn't taking you off the case permanently, she just wants you to get enough rest before helping the others." Holly smirked as she watched the blonde officer roll her eyes as cross her arms. "Now come here..." The pathologist patted the cushion beside her. "I want to take a look at the stitches the paramedic gave you.

"Worried that he didn't do a good job?" Gail quipped as she crossed the room and sat beside her girlfriend.

"That is part of the reason, but I want to make sure that it isn't infected." Holly lightly grabbed Gail's hand and inspected it. "Is this a little tender?" she asked as she lightly grazed the skin next to the cut. The officer hissed as she tried to snatch her hand back from her lover. "I take that as a yes," Holly said as she stood up from her seated position on the sofa and walked towards the kitchen.

As she rummaged through the cupboards, Gail glanced back at her. "Do you really think we are okay?"

Holly reached for the first aid kit in the back of the cabinet and brought it out onto the counter. "I think we are okay, I mean, we did forgive each other..."

"That's not what I meant," Gail replied softly as she stood up and walked towards the pathologist. She sat on the stool beside the counter and stopped Holly's hands from delving back into the bag. "I mean, are you certain that this woman wasn't sick with any of those viruses that you had mentioned."

The brunette sighed as she reached for the officer's cheek. She cupped it softly and placed a light kiss on her lips. "I'm certain... they had Dr. Monroe do the post in my stead and I trust her to be extremely profession in everything she does. Besides, she emailed me a copy of her reports, and I am completely, one hundred percent certain that the woman died of nothing more than a punctured lung caused by a very brutal beating."

"But you seem a bit worried still," Gail pressed as she kissed the inside of Holly's palm that was resting on her cheek.

Biting her lower lip, the brunette stared at her lover. "Is it that obvious?" Gail nodded her head and smiled. "Well, I guess it is because I still do not understand why Dr. O'Neal would have such a room in her house in the first place. It just does not make any sense to me, unless she was continuing her work after retirement, but I did not see anything that remotely looked like laboratory equipment anywhere in her house. Maybe Gregory Schlenz was correct when he said she was a paranoid woman?"

"But why would she set up the room like a level four suite like you said?"

Holly adjusted her glasses and removed her hand from Gail's cheek. She busied herself with the first aid kit before pulling out gauze and a bottle of iodine. She shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe she had mysophobia? I really can not tell at this point. Maybe your mother will get more information when she calls USAMRIID in the morning."

"What's mysophobia?"Gail asked as she moved her hand away from Holly when she spotted the bottle of iodine.

She brushed her hair over her shoulder and huffed at Gail's antics. "It is the fear of germs... Now, I want you to stay still and please... do not remove the gauze again. I can't believe you did that while we were in the car."

Gail opened her mouth to retort, but sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Yes, mother."

Holly grinned as she as she leaned forward to kiss the woman in front of her. "I don't know if I should be insulted or proud that you would liken me to your mother. As much as you complain about her, I am starting to think of it as an insult."

The officer wrapped an arm around the pathologist, bringing the standing woman closer to her. "You know I didn't mean it like that," Gail whispered against Holly's lips as she returned the kiss more fervently.

Holly moaned into the kiss as she felt Gail pull her even closer. She tangled her hands in the officer's short blonde hair as she straddled Gail's hips and when she felt the blonde's uninjured hand slip from her lower back to her backside, Holly momentarily forgot their conversation. When the need for air became to great, the pathologist rested her head against Gail's and chuckled. "I think you did that on purpose."

A smirk graced the officer's lips as she stared into her lover's eyes. "Whatever do you mean, Dr. Stewart?"

"You know exactly what I mean, Officer Peck. You wanted me to forget the reason we are in the kitchen in the first place... and that is to take care of your hand."

* * *

Sitting in a darkened corner of a random bar, on the other side of the city where no one would know who he was, Chris was nursing his fourth bottle of beer when he noticed a familiar face in the crowd. Smiling to himself, he tried to make contact with the person, but frowned when the man was approached by a vaguely familiar woman. _If I don't score some soon, I will never get rid of this headache, _he thought to himself as he watched his dealer walk towards the back of the pub near the bathrooms. Shaking his head to steel his courage, the officer stood up from his chair and slowly walked towards the bathrooms. The sound of the music blasting through the speakers caused his headache to throb to the tempo. At one point, he felt as though he should just turn around and try to see if he possibly hid some of the drugs from himself in his bedroom, but the closer he got to the back of the bar, the more his need for a fix now outweighed his idea to search for his salvation later. As he turned the corner, he could hear muffled voices coming from a room to his left. Leaning carefully against the door, he was able to make out the voice of Jaime and a woman.

"_I don't know what I am going to do Jaime... it's not like Greg to not answer his phone."_

"_Just calm down, Anna... he is probably still pissed off at your performance at the O'Neal house earlier. From what I hear, the cops went back to your house to speak with him again. I told you not to leave your damn car in front of her house!"_

"_But Jaime... how was I supposed to know he was going to fucking call it in today? We didn't even get a chance to really find anything worth stealing in the first place!" _

"_I told you he would freak the fuck out when he accidentally killed her, what do you expect from him?"_

Chris's eyes widened with understanding as he slowly back away from the door. _I knew she looked familiar! _He thought as he calmly walked back towards the pounding beat of the music. He breathed a sigh of relief when his hand wrapped around the cool metal of the front door of the bar. As Chris opened the door and felt the first cool breeze of the night air, a hand landed on his shoulder and spun him around.

"Well, look who we have here!" Jaime said with mock surprise in his voice. "Come to pay me back? I hope you didn't come all this way just to buy... or should I say 'borrow' more of my wares. I told you before, if you don't pay me the money you owe me from the last fix I gave you, you were shit out of luck."

The woman that Chris now recognised as 'Patricia O'Neal' had made her way towards the dealer and crossed her arms. "Hello Officer, I didn't expect to see you in a place like this."

Chris rubbed the nape of his neck. "Well, after a long day at work, I like to relax with a nice cold beer and just hangout."

Jaime smirked as he continued to keep his hand on Diaz's shoulder. "Well, why don't we all just hangout then?"

"I... I have had a long day today, and have to wake up early tomorrow to do it all over again," Chris began as he tried to nonchalantly remove Jaime's hand from his shoulder. "I just want to go home now and sleep."

"Nonsense! The night has just started!" The dealer wrapped his arm around Chris's shoulders to keep him from trying to leave the bar. He turned the officer away from front door and steered him towards the back of the bar. "You can come sit at our table... you know, drink beer and hangout."

Chris attempted to smile, but his pounding head, would not allow the muscles in his face to work properly. "Uh.. sure, it sounds like a good idea."

"Excellent! We will have a great time! Just the three of us!"


	13. Chapter 13

_**Author's Note:**__** I apologise for such the long delay. Things have been piling up and a few stories had to be shifted to the back burner, so to say. But... I have caught up with several other stories that were taking up most of my time and efforts, and I was finally able to shift focus for the moment. This story is nearly at the end of its run. I am sad to see it go, but don't fret... there are possibly two more chapters to go for this story before it ends. I may start another one, but with the heartache of hearing that this show was cancelled, it may take some time before I write another one. I do have a few ideas running about, but as I just said, it will take some time to get it figured out properly. So, without further ado... here's the chapter!**_

* * *

Oliver looked about the parade room as he watched Dov and Chloe enter the room. As he cleared his throat, he glanced down at the paperwork in front of him. "Is this everyone?"

Chloe looked around the room, as did everyone else, and frowned, "I don't see Chris. He should be here, right? I mean, this meeting is for everyone who was part of yesterday's case, right? So he should be here, but then again, he wasn't here at all last night and he should have been, right?"

Shaw frowned as he glanced back up at everyone. _Great, Superintendent Peck will be here any second and Diaz hasn't shown up. I remember telling everyone to be here this morning. _"Epstein..." Dov looked up with a questioning gaze. "Try getting Diaz on the line and tell him to hurry it up. We need to get out of the parade room before the morning shift needs to use it."

"Okay," Dov said as he reached for his phone and hit a couple of buttons.

"Maybe he's still asleep? I know I would be if we weren't asked to come in," Gail said as she reached for a coffee cup that Holly had placed in front of her. "Who wakes up at this ungodly hour anyway?"

"Well, most of us were already here the whole night, so it is only you who had to wake up at this 'ungodly hour', Gail," Elaine Peck said as she strolled through the door. She raised an eyebrow as she looked over at her daughter who preceded to lower her head to the table as she muttered, 'Please kill me now.' She stopped in the middle of the room as she addressed Oliver. "Is this everyone? I know everyone is ready to call it a night, but I want my daughter and Doctor Stewart, here, caught up with our recent findings; since, after all, they were the ones who were trapped within the room nearly all day yesterday."

"We are waiting on one more person to show up," he said with a frown. "Dov?"  
"He's not answering his phone, sir."

"Who's not answering their phone? And why weren't they here with the rest of you? I only told Gail and Doctor Stewart to go home and rest." Elaine stared at the younger man until he glanced at the table and swallowed hard.

"Chris Diaz, Superintendent," Oliver covered for Epstein as the young officer tried to collect himself from the cool gaze of the Peck matriarch.

"Hmm, he always seemed a bit troubled," Elaine murmured as she shook her head. "It doesn't matter. We must start this meeting now. He was not here last night to help, so therefore this matter no longer pertains to him." She cast her gaze towards Oliver. "If he does decide to grace us with his presence, inform me. I would like to know, personally, why he decided that he did not have to continue helping with the rest of this case." She walked from the middle of the room to stand beside the Staff Sergeant. "Detective Nash?"

"Ma'am?"

"What do you have for us?"

Tracy stood up from her seat in the back of the room and walked towards the board up front. "Well, we know our victim is Doctor Patricia O'Neal. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, she worked with USAMRIID at Fort Deitrick, in Fredrick, Maryland." She placed a picture of the deceased woman on the board for the room to see. "Her husband, Colonel Jason O'Neal had worked there as well. Both worked in the level four suites, until January twenty-fourth of 2008. That was when Colonel O'Neal died."

Holly scrunched her nose as her hand came up to adjust her glasses. "What did he die of?"

"A suit malfunction was all the coroner's report said. Since, it is U.S. Army, we could not receive all the details."

"Care to enlighten the group on what is studied in a level four suite, Doctor?" Superintendent Peck asked as she smiled at Holly.

The forensic pathologist cleared her throat, "The USAMRIID is an acronym for U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, there they research different diseases to ascertain cures. They have several levels within their facilities. Each level caters to different degrees of contagious diseases. Level one being diseases that are contagious, but are not life-threatening. The number of level increases along with the severity of the particular disease. Since there are only four levels, you can probably guess what the fourth level houses. Diseases like Ebola are only researched in this suite. If the coroner stated that his death was due to suit malfunction, that can mean his suit ripped or the suit's ventilation system stopped working."

"That can kill someone?" Andy asked from the back of the room. "I mean, that seems a little shaky of a statement if you ask me."

Gail rolled her eyes at the dark-haired officer but was cut off from making a biting remark by Holly. "A virus, like Ebola, can infect and kill someone within a week. It is a dangerous virus that scientists do not understand fully. The only thing that virologists know is that it comes from around Mount Elgon in the Rift Valley near Kenya. They believe that it may come from the Kitum Cave, but have not been able to pinpoint an exact location, nor the exact species that it originally comes from. They do know, however, that it had jumped species and that..."

"What species did it jump from?" Chloe asked as her eyes widened at prospect of a disease jumping from another animal to humans.

"It was first noticed in monkeys," Holly stated as she adjusted her glasses. "The theory of how it jumped species is not exact but most scientists theorise that because many of the tribes in the area ate bush meat, or simply put, monkey meat, they had been able to contract the virus that way.

"As I said before, Ebola is a very dangerous virus. The researchers who study diseases in the level four suite take every precaution necessary to make sure they are well protected from any contamination... and they have every reason to take these precautions. I won't go into the very graphic description of what happens to a person that is infected, but let's just say that even a tiny hole in the glove of a virologist who is working with this virus can become a large problem." She took a deep breath and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "And that is just one of the many viruses that are studied in the hot labs."

"Since everyone now has a brief idea of what goes in a hot lab, we can now catch Gail and Doctor Stewart up with the rest of the room," Elaine said as she glanced around at the haggard group in front of her. "Care to continue you with your findings, Detective?"

Detective Nash cleared her throat before speaking. "As I said before, Doctor Patricia O'Neal worked with USAMRIID at Fort Deitrick, in Fredrick, Maryland as did her husband Colonel Jason O'Neal until January twenty-fourth of 2008, when he died. They had no children nor did they have any relative living anywhere near Toronto." She leaned against the table behind her. "I went back to her house with a few officers to see if we could notice if anything looked completely out of place, but the only area that was really ransacked was the panic room, or I should say, bedroom."

"She used that as a bedroom?" Gail asked as she turned her attention to Traci.

"From what we could tell, yes. When we went upstairs to the master bedroom, we could not find a single thing that would suggest anyone even stepped foot in the room. Sure, it had a bed and dressers, but the bed looked as if it was never slept in and the dressers were empty."

"Maybe whoever did this to her had taken everything from in there before the next door neighbour had called 911." Gail suggested as she leaned back in her chair.

Steve shook his head. "There was a layer of dust on all the dressers and it wasn't disturbed. It was weird... the whole house seemed to be in a similar state. Not dusty like the bedroom, but unlived in. The only room that seemed lived in was the panic room... or whatever that room was."

"She may have suffered from PTSD," Holly mused aloud as she glanced at Superintendent Peck.

"That is an interesting observation, Doctor," Elaine remarked as she glanced back to the board in front of the room. "It makes sense. A woman, living alone in such a large house, but only, technically, residing in the lower portion of the house... more specifically, one room in the house."

"She went into early retirement because of the unfortunate death of her husband and moved up here, away from the U.S. Military and away from any reminders of her old life..." Holly ventured as she picked up where Elaine left off. "Except her fear of pathogens kept her from really continuing her life. It bogged her down until she was living a shell of a life in a negative-pressured room. Until..."

"Until someone killed her," Gail finished as she finally looked up at her mother. "Do we have any suspects? A motive?"

"First suspect is Gregory Schlenz. He is in custody now," Traci said as she placed a picture on the board. "He tried to evade questioning last night and was apprehended by Dov and Chloe. He is in holding now awaiting further questioning. As for his wife..." Traci placed another photo, taken from the Schlenz's home, on the board. "She has fled. We have put out a BOLO on her to all the other precincts in the area. Once brought in, she will be charged for impeding an investigation and fraud. No motive yet. Neither Gregory or his wife have any connections to the late Doctor O'Neal. Maybe we can get more information from Gregory later on today, but right now, he isn't talking."

"Now that you two are caught up, do you have any questions?" Elaine asked her daughter and Holly as she stared at them intently. Both women shook their heads 'no' as everyone around them starting grabbing their things waiting to be dismissed. "Allright... if no one has anything else, then I will be the first to say go home and get some rest. I want everyone to be well-rested when you all come back in tonight."

Chairs scuff the tile floor as everyone, except for one person, got up and started to head towards the door. Dov waited in his chair until only he, Oliver, and Elaine were alone in the parade room. "Oliver..." Epstein started as he grabbed his phone from its holster. "Something's not right. This isn't like Chris. Sure, he seems to be slacking lately, but he has always returned my calls and he has never missed parade. I think something's wrong."

Before Oliver could say anything, Elaine turned around from collecting her files and stared at Epstein. "So, you believe something has happened to Officer Diaz?" She asked as she tapped the files on the desk to even them out. "And you are basing this on the fact that, in the past, he has been prompt with his responses?"

"Well... yes ma'am," Dov said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "He has always been a stand-up guy and this just doesn't seem like him. And I was wondering if I could use the computers here to see if I can track his phone. I just know something is wrong."

Elaine squared her shoulders and stared intently at the young officer in front of her. "Allright, see if you can track him down." She turned toward the door in the back of the room and walked down the aisle toward it. She stopped halfway across the room and turned to face Dov. "If this is some bullshit or another that Diaz is pulling, he is off the force and you will have to reimburse the station for your time spent chasing this idle fancy. Do you understand, officer?"

"Yes, ma'am," Dov responded as he watched the Peck matriarch walk through the door and down the hallway of the precinct.

Oliver walked closer to Epstein and placed a hand on the officers shoulder. "I hope for his sake and yours, that this isn't some kind of joke or something that he is pulling," Shaw whispered as he squeezed Dov's shoulder and walked out the door.

Dov swallowed hard as he looked about the empty parade room. "I hope so too."


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay guys! I have been writing like crazy for several of my stories lately and it has pushed the release of this chapter as well as several other stories' chapters. Hopefully, now that I am caught up with some of my other stories and with the near ending of another, I should be able to focus on finishing this story. Now with that out of the way... here's the chapter!**

* * *

"So, what do we do now?" Holly asked as she stared at Gail out of the corner of her eye. After the meeting, Gail's mother had told the two women that they were to take the rest of the week off since they were considered inadvertent victims in an ongoing investigation. "Do you want me to take you to your apartment?" The blonde noticed slight hesitation in her lover's words as she had asked her last question.

"Just so I can pick up a few things," Gail responded with a smile. "I don't exactly have a lot of clothes at your place. Also, maybe we can look in Chris's room..." the officer paused as she stared at the red traffic signal ahead of them. "Maybe there is something there that Epstein didn't notice."

"Gail..." Holly began as she glanced at her lover in the passenger seat. "You do recall that your mother told us to not get involved. I don't know how she talked my supervisor into it, but she is right. We..."

"Chris disappearing is not part of this investigation, Holly," Gail retorted as she continued staring out the window. "He's my friend and Dov was right. Something is going on here and I want to find out what it is. Maybe he left a message and Dov and Chloe didn't see it."  
"Like a note on the mirror while one of them was in the shower?" Holly asked playfully trying to lighten Gail's mood.

Even though the lame attempt at a joke was a long shot, the pathologist realised it worked when she saw the blonde smirk. "He wasn't always the sharpest tool in the shed..." The smirk disappeared and the officer's brow furrowed. "I have noticed a few things wrong with him lately though. He seemed a bit stand-offish and a bit angrier."

"What do you mean?" Holly asked as she turned left at the next intersection and drove down the sun dappled street toward Gail's building.

The blonde shrugged ran her hand through her short hair. "The usual stuff I guess. He just seemed so secretive ever since his break up with Denise. I know the whole situation of finding out Christian wasn't his really shook him up." She sighed at stared at Holly. "Maybe it is just my mind going into overdrive."

"Well, a lot of people would become a different person after finding all of that out." She pulled the car up to the curb and cut the engine. "Just think about it, for over five years, he thought that Christian was his. He put so much into that idea... he even left to go back and assume responsibility. Then to find out, after your son was abducted, that he wasn't yours all along..." She ran her hand through her long dark hair and sighed. "I surprised he didn't go postal."

"That's the thing," Gail said as she unbuckled her seat-belt. "He didn't. He still wanted to be apart of Christian's life, but not Denise's. He took it better than I imagined, but you could tell that it hurt him."

"So, what is it that makes you think he was stand-offish?"

"Something else happened to him, I feel. Something that Dov suspects, but doesn't know for sure." Gail opened the door to the car and stepped outside. A breeze caused the leaves to stir on the trees along the street. The sudden coolness made Holly shiver as she stepped out of the car and closed the door. "Maybe we can find evidence as to where Chris might be."

"If we find anything, don't touch it. We have to report it," Holly said as she followed the blonde up the few steps leading to the front door.

Gail rolled her eyes and smiled as she slid her key in the lock. "I seriously doubt it is as bad as that."

* * *

Dov rubbed his eyes as he stared at the monitor in front of him. He lifted the Styrofoam cup beside him to his lip and grimaced. _Cold, _he thought as he set the coffee cup back down and ran his hand down his face. _Just like Chris's trail it seems. _

"You do realise that is your fourth cup of coffee, right?" A voice said over his shoulder.

"How can you still be perky after being up over twenty-four hours, Chloe?"

The female officer sat down beside him and shrugged. "I guess I have a normal perky disposition." He glanced at her to see her cast a quick smile his way then suddenly her smile disappeared and she sighed. "Okay, maybe I caught a little nap in the break room, but all of this is just really getting to me. First that homicide, now Diaz is missing."

"I don't think he is really missing, Chloe. Maybe he went to pick up Christian and left his phone at the apartment?"

"You don't really sound that sure of that, Dov," Chloe replied as she settled down in the seat beside him and stared at the computer screen. "Has Nick spoke to you about our suspect?"

"No," Dov said with a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I have been so focused on finding Chris that I actually forgot about the real reason we had spent the whole night at the precinct. What has happened?"

"He wants to cut a deal," Nick said behind them startling them both.

"Shit, Nick!" Dov exclaimed as he turned in his seat and stared at the man. "Don't ever do that! I thought Chloe was creepy when she would sneak up on me like that, you make it terrifying!"

Collins smirked at Epstein's response. "Gregory decided, or shall I say, his lawyer, decided that it was time to come clean about what happened. Our suspect paints himself as a real boy scout in the whole situation, blames the whole thing on his wife's brother; a drug dealer named Jaime."

"Were you able to get a last name?" Chloe asked as she moved to another computer to check if the name popped up in the system.

"That's the thing," Nick huffed as he sat down on the side of the table. "He wouldn't budge on the last name, but he did mention his wife as well. Said that she was trying to help her brother, who was strapped for cash. He said he didn't know a thing about what they really intended to do."

"That's bullshit and you know it, Nick," Dov retorted as he rolled his eyes. "We already told you about the phone conversation we listened in on last night. If he wasn't the mastermind of the whole thing, he was at least a willing participant."

"Hey, I know that and you know that, but that doesn't mean that what he is telling us isn't at least partly true. Traci and Steve are finishing up with our suspect as we speak. Hopefully, we can get an address on this cabin and see if we can turn anything up there."

"I don't understand a few things though," Chloe mused out loud. "Why did they have to kill Dr. O'Neal in the first place? Also, what does a drug dealer have to do with the whole thing? Did they honestly think she had drugs in her house? Or did they think she had a lot of money just stashed around her house?"

Dov put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "We'll find out more once we get the rest of his group... that is if there really is a third person in all of this."

"Well, Sam and Andy are at the Schlenz's house now. They went to see if there was any more evidence to tie Gregory to the crime and they are trying to get more information on his wife Anna," Nick replied as his phone started to go off. "One minute guys.

"Hello?" he had stepped away from the couple, turned his back to them, and answered his phone.

"He_y, Nick?"_

"Yeah, Gail?" Collins said her name so Dov and Chloe could know who he was talking to.

"_You might want to get in touch with Epstein and Miss Perky. Also, let Oliver in on it as well."_

Nick frowned at his phone and turned to face Dov and Chloe who were still sitting at the desk in front of him. "Gail, what's going on? I have Dov and Chloe right in front of me. Are you okay? Did you find Chris or something?"

"_Or something is about right. I don't want to explain anything over the phone, but want you and the Nerdy Duo to come to the apartment. It's best for you to see this instead of me telling you over the phone." _

"Okay, Gail," Nick said as he glanced at the couple again. "We'll see you in twenty minutes." He ended the call and shook his head.

"What the hell was that about, Nick?" Dov asked as he stood up from his chair.

"Gail wants us to come over to the apartment you guys all share," he said as he walked over to his desk to pick up his jacket. "She said that we need to tell Oliver where we are going and to meet her there. She said she would explain when we got there."

"That's it?" Chloe asked as she reached for her keys on the desk and stood up as well. "That doesn't sound foreboding at all," she added sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. "Why do you think she wouldn't tell you over the phone?"

"I don't know, but she sounded pretty worried. I'll go speak with Oliver, you two get the car ready and I will meet you out there," Nick said over his shoulder as he walked towards the Staff Sergeant's office.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Author's Note: First, I would like to apologise for delay. I have been diligently writing on this story as well as five other stories these past couple of months, so I have been really productive. So, productive, in fact, that within the next week I will release another chapter for this story! I have the chapter finished actually, but it still needs to go through fine tuning before I can release it. And now... as they say, on with the show! ;)**_

* * *

The trio rode in silence as they left the station. Each one's thoughts echoing the others, though they did not speak a word. Finally, Chloe interrupted the silence. "What do you think they found that would cause them to want us to come home so quickly?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he said as he glanced at the rear-view mirror and looked into Chloe's eyes. "Gail seemed pretty pissed though and she wanted us to let Oliver know where we were going, so it couldn't be anything good."

Dov shook his head. "When is Gail ever not pissed about something?" he asked as he looked out the passenger-side window. It was a beautiful day, but he knew in his heart that it was only going to be marred by the information that Gail and Holly were going to give them.

"Did you ever find out about that woman's job?" Nick asked, interrupting Epstein's thoughts.

He turned to look at the ex-military soldier. "What woman's job?"

"The one we thought was Patricia O'Neal... this Anna woman. She said something about working for a pharmaceutical company out of Germany."

Dov sighed, "It was all a fake. She was lying from the time she entered the house to the time you had dropped her off, Nick."

"So even the company is a fake?"

"No. Zurich- Mueller is a real company, but everything she said about it was fake. Anna Schlenz has a wrap sheet about a mile long. Starting from the age of sixteen. All of it small time though. Petty theft. Few windows busted here and there. Busted for marijuana a couple times, but other than that, nothing major. Her brother is a known drug dealer that the Narcotics division would love to get a hold of, but he's like a ghost. Every single time they think they are close to him, he disappears and lies low. Steve has been trying to get a hold of that guy for months, but to no avail. Even his informants don't know where this guy spends his off hours."

"So," Chloe began. "We have two people who have basically disappeared and the only person who might know where they are is at the station, but isn't speaking much on the subject, except that he was an innocent bystander."

"That's the short of it," Dov replied with a sigh. "Now we are off to figure out what Gail has found that is so distressing that she had to pull us from the station. I wish that she would have waited until we found out if this guy cracked more. Maybe he could have given us a location or something."

"Maybe she found out something about Chris?" Chloe stated as the car stopped in front of the apartment building.

"Maybe," Nick said as he unbuckled his seat belt and opened the car door. "We need some break in this case and we definitely need Diaz's help."

The door to the apartment that Chloe, Dov, Chris, and Gail shared opened and the blonde officer stepped out onto the steps. "About time you guys decided to show up. We were wondering if you would ever come."

Dov rolled his eyes. "Well we're here now, so what is it that is so important that you had to take us away from the station?"

Before Gail could reply, Holly stepped through the open door and answered. "I think it would be best if we spoke about this inside instead of out on the street."

The three officers stared at each other questioningly as they took in the pathologist's sullen demeanour. Though none of them have really spent a lot of time with her, they all knew that Holly normally had an upbeat, fun personality; but now seeing her serious expression, coupled with her subdued tones, the three friends knew something was not right.

"You're right," Nick said as he started walking towards the front door. Dov and Chloe followed behind, everyone silent until the door was closed tightly behind them.

"So," Dov began as he stared at the two women in front of him. "What is so important that you had to call us over? Chloe and I were going to leave the station in a few more hours to try and catch some sleep. You could have told us when we got back."

Gail rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but Holly intervened. "This is something that could not wait, Epstein."

"Why not start at the beginning," Nick ventured as he crossed his arms and leaned against the front door.

"We came to pick up some of my stuff so I could spend some time at Holly's place," Gail started as she glanced at the woman in question. "Mom said I was off the case, so I thought it was best to stay away from the house so I wouldn't hear everyone..."

"You don't have to come up with an excuse, Gail," Chloe said with a smile. "It's good to see you two back together."

Gail smiled. A slight blush graced her cheeks before she continued. "Thanks," she muttered as she glanced at Chloe. "Well, anyway. We were here grabbing some of my stuff, when I decided to take a look in Chris's room. I thought maybe there was something in there that might tell us where he went or maybe who he has been in contact with."

"That was good thinking, but you do remember what your mom said, right?" Epstein asked as he narrowed his eyes at the blonde.

Rolling her eyes, Gail huffed. "Of course I remember! She may be my mother, but I'm not stupid. If she gives an order, it is to be followed. What we did here was not in direct violation to her order, that's why I brought you guys in. I found out information and called the proper authorities." Under her breath she muttered, "Though I probably should have called someone else into this."

Holly smirked and elbowed Gail softly in the side. "What Gail is trying to say is that we felt that the evidence that we had found needed to be further explored, so we decided to enlist your help on that matter."

"So, what did you guys find?" Chloe asked as she glanced towards the partially closed door that led to Diaz's room. Even though she had lived in the apartment with Dov, Gail and Chris for several months now, she never ventured into the others bedrooms. Most of her day-to-day allowed her passage to the kitchen, dining, and living rooms, as well as, Dov's bedroom and personal bathroom. Though the thought of crossing into another room that was not part of her daily repertoire seemed intriguing, the red-head did not like the idea of invading someone else's private life; though some of her friends felt otherwise.

"I think it is better that we show you instead of telling you what we found," Holly said as she turned to face the room. Her teeth were worrying her bottom lip as she stared at the room.

Dov shook his head as he felt a weird sense of foreboding creep through his psyche. "It can't be that bad, can it?" He huffed. "I mean we are talking about Chris." He stared at Gail and wondered over her look of dismay. _She saw something that really shook her up, _Dov thought as he continued to stare at the blonde. _Something is definitely not right here. _Taking a deep breath he glanced away from Gail and peered at the door. "All right, let's go see what you found."

The group of friends trailed behind Holly and Gail as they crossed the small expanse of the living-room towards the room that would hopefully provide the answers needed in finding their friend. As everyone entered the dimly lit room, Dov noticed right away that something wasn't right. The room was too dishevelled as if someone had rifled through all of Chris's belongings. In search of... something.

"Did you guys do this?" Nick asked as he flipped the light switch and stared at the mess under fluorescent lighting.

"Of course not!" Gail exclaimed as she rolls her eyes again. "What do you take us for? This is how we found it. I know that Chris isn't exactly the cleanest person in the world, but I seriously doubt he would leave his room looking like this." She shook her head and pointed towards the dresser. "But the mess isn't why we are here. Take a look on the dresser."

Dov, Chloe and Nick walked over to the dresser and stared at the contents sprawled across the top. As they continued to stare, Nick said, "I don't understand what we are supposed to be looking at... oh! Is that what I think it is?" he asked as he pointed a finger at a small bag underneath a hand-scrawled note in the middle of the debris.

"We really won't know until we confirm it with the labs," Gail said from across the room. "But as far as we were concerned, it did look like cocaine."

"Shit!" Dov exclaimed as he stalked back to the door. "This can't be right! Not Chris! He would never do something stupid like this!"

"It fits though," Holly replied softly. "From what Gail has told me while we were waiting for you guys to show up, it seems as if he was going through withdrawals. She told me how he has been the past week and the symptoms fit. Maybe he tossed his own room to find his stash, but was too muddled to see it in front of his..."

"Just stop right there, Holly," Dov warned as he pointed at the pathologist. "That is just bullshit and everyone knows it! You don't know Chris! Maybe... maybe he was set up! We busted a couple of drug dealers a few weeks back, so maybe they decided to take advantage of our situation down at the station and set Chris up."

Nick shook his head. "Dov, that doesn't make sense. If that was the case, why didn't they trash the whole apartment? Also, how would they know where you lived? I know it may sound harsh, but I agree with Holly and Gail on this one."

Dov rolled his eyes then stared at Chloe. "What do you think?"

The woman in question furrowed her brows and worried her lip. "Dov, they're right and you know it. You even said so yourself that he wasn't acting right. Besides, did you read the note?"

Dov took a deep breath to calm himself and clear his head. _They're right. I should have noticed the signs sooner. Maybe I could have helped my best friend out of this situation before it got too big. _He cleared his throat and glanced at Chloe. "What does it say?"

"There is an address on it and a name of some guy named Jaime. Do you think that is the brother of Anna? I mean the name is the same and also it seems as if he might also be tied to Chris's little problem. Maybe we should give Steve and Traci a call... just to be on the safe side." She said as she looked up from the paper.

"Shit, that's too much of a coincidence," Dov stated as he ran his hand through his hair. He turned towards Holly and Gail. "Now before we call Steve and Traci in on this, just answer one question... did you guys touch the note or the bag?"  
"Do we look like idiots to you, Epstein?" Gail exclaimed as she rolled her eyes.

"You know this is going to get him in a lot of trouble," Nick said as he looked at everyone in the room.

Dov sighed as wiped his hands on his pants. "I know. I really hate to do this to him, but if the name on the paper is someone who is a part of the murder we are working on, we may have broken the case, without the creep in lock-up even spilling his guts. Also, if this is the way to get him off this shit, he really needs the wake-up call."

Nick nodded his head slowly in agreement. "Okay, then let's go outside and call Steve. I don't want us to be in here any longer. I don't want anyone thinking we might have a part in all of this."


	16. Chapter 16

Steve leaned back in his chair as he watched the interrogation through the one-way mirror. He turned the volume up on the speaker and listened carefully as he watched his mother ask a question.

"_I'm going to ask you one more time, Mr. Schlenz. Where is your wife?"_

"_You don't have to answer that,"_ Gregory's lawyer said before the man could open his mouth. _"They do not have enough evidence to support their wild speculation that you have committed any crime. Besides... you have already given them everything they need. You have been in here this whole time, so how could you know where your wife is."_

"_You see..." _Elaine paused slightly before continuing, _"That's where you are wrong Counsellor. Gregory, do you remember when you were given a phone call when you first arrived here? Well, you used it to call a burner phone that was, at one time, in the possession of your wife; and I believe your words were quite clear to my officer that had said phone in an evidence bag. You said, and I quote, 'Took you long enough to answer the damned phone. Don't talk just listen...You have to get out of town... the cops have me locked up and I think they may be on to us. Now, don't start... they don't have enough on me to hold me much longer... when I get out, I will meet you at the cabin.' Is this correct?" _Elaine asked as she looked up at Gregory, completely ignoring the attorney beside him.

"_Circumstantial evidence," _the lawyer replied with a shrug. _"How do we know if your officer is telling the truth? My client has already told you that he is a victim of circumstance. He did not know what his wife and her brother were going to do. If he had known all along, he would have prevented this travesty from happening."_

The superintendent turned to stare at the lawyer. His appearance told her that this man always got what he wanted, in the end, but she knew, this instance would be a very disappointing reality check. _"So, Counsellor... do you not wish for your client to go free?"  
"You can not hold my client based on speculation,"_ he retorted as he sat straighter in his chair.

"_Oh... I wouldn't consider this evidence speculation," _Elaine drawled as she smirked at the man. _"We have other evidence that can put your client away for at least a few years. Do you care to hear them? Well, first off, your client tried to run away when officers asked him about his wife... who they thought at the time was deceased. Also, what about now? You told us that you would come clean of everything you know and you have been very forthcoming, but on this small little detail about your wife's location. You don't even have to really know where she is, hell, as far as you could know, she might have drove through the border and into the U.S; but the least you could do is give us an idea of where she might go. She is your wife after all, you should know of places she likes to visit from time to time." _She paused to place her pen on top of her notepad. The page that the notepad was open to was as clean as it was the day she bought it. _"By my count, that's two offences right there. One, obstruction of justice and two... impeding an investigation. So you can..."_

"_Shit!" _Gregory exclaimed as he ran his hand through his greasy dark hair. _"Look I don't know where..."_

"_Mr. Schlenz, you don't have..."_

"_Just shut the fuck up Alphonse, you told me that I could cut a deal with the cops and I wouldn't face any charges, right?" _He looked pointedly at his lawyer as Alphonse nodded his head. _"But now, Officer Peck here..."_

"_That's Superintendent Peck, Mr Schlenz. I haven't been an officer in a long time." _

"_Anyway... you told me to tell them everything I know, now you want me to keep my god-damn mouth shut. What the hell, man?" _He stared at his attorney again before taking a deep breath. "_Shit, I don't know where she is. You got to believe me. Sure, I called her, but she didn't answer." _He glanced at Elaine and sighed. _"I guess now I know why. Look I don't know where they would go, but maybe they went to his cabin up in Beaverton."_

"_Now we are getting somewhere," Elaine said as she leaned forward in her chair and picked up her pen."What's the address of this cabin."_

"_Shit, I don't know. Never been up there myself. I just know he rented a place up there to get away from the city. Anna would go there a couple of times when he would get upset and she would stay the weekend and she would tell me about the place and all, but I never asked the address. Didn't really care to know really. I was just glad that she kept him away from me. I don't like all that drug shit."_

Elaine nodded her head and frowned. _"But you said you would meet her at the cabin?"_

He shook his head slowly before replying, "_Like I said, I haven't been there personally, but they were going to give me the directions once they were established there."_

_"A likely story,"_ Elaine said as she rolled her eyes. _"You just happened to know that she would head there, but didn't know where exactly it is." _Nodding her head a smirk graced her lips. _"I see what this is, you knew about the place, figured it would be where she would go... but the question is why? Is this a place __your wife had to go to while she did her drugs on the side and visited her brother as well? Is that how you knew about it but never went to it? A nice relaxing place in a small town that you could get away from it all every so often. I wouldn't mind a place like that, but since there were drugs there, I don't think I would have went either."_

"_She hasn't done anything since she was a teenager!" _Gregory retorted with a scowl. _"Look..." _He took a deep breath. _"Seriously, that's all I know. I already told you that I heard them discussing something about breaking into the next door neighbour's house... they were talking about it on the phone, so I could only hear Anna's side of the conversation; but I do know that they mentioned Dr. O'Neal's name, so when I heard what happened, I panicked. I know I should have maybe contacted the police when I first heard what they were discussing, but hindsight and all." _He smiled slightly at his small joke but it quickly dissipated when he saw the calloused look on Elaine's face.

"_It's not funny Mr. Schlenz,"_ she said as she stood up from her chair._ "A woman died yesterday and we nearly had an officers and a member of the medico-legal staff harmed as well. So I do not see this as a time to joke."_ She turned to the attorney as he was standing to leave as well._ "As you know, we are going to have to detain your client just until we can find his wife and brother-in-law."_

The man looked as if he was about to protest. After a few seconds, he finally relented with a nod and left the room followed by the Superintendent.

_Damn, I thought we might learn more from this, _Steve thought as he watched his mom walk out the door of the interrogation room and out into the hallway. He stood from his chair and walked out the door of his room.

"Well that didn't go as planned." Elaine said after speaking a few moments with the officer standing by the interrogation room door.

"At least he was talking," Steve replied with a sigh. "The first time Dov tried to interrogate him, he wouldn't say anything." He looked at his mother and smiled. "You know, it was actually interesting to see you do an interrogation, Mom."

Superintendent Peck rolled her eyes, a trait that her daughter had inherited from her. "I'm a little rusty. When you are in my position, you normally don't do things like this."

"Why did you want to do it in the first place then? Traci and I could have done the interview."

"Why wouldn't I?" She countered as she stared at her son. "Gail was trapped in that room for hours because of this sick bastard, his wife, and her brother." She looked at her son and shook her head. "Don't try to tell me you believe him for a minute. He smells freedom and is trying his damnedest to get out of this mess." She sighed and continued. "If they didn't kill that poor woman, none of you would have been there and none of you would have had to deal with the possibility of getting a horrible virus that could kill you." She looked her son in the eye and narrowed her own. "That pathologist that was at the house... she's the one that Gail was seeing, correct?"

"I-i-i... uh... yes?" Steve stammered as he tried to break eye-contact with his mother.

"Do you know if they are back together?" she asked as she continued to stare at him.

Squirming slightly under his mother's gaze, Steve rubbed the nape of his neck. "I think so. They had enough time to talk out their differences in that room. Besides, I know Gail wasn't over her. I'll ask her when I see her again."

Nodding her head slowly, Elaine smirked. "Good. I like her. She's a lot better than those guys Gail dated. A hell of a lot smarter too." She pointed a finger at her son. "But don't tell them I said that. I want to see them squirm a bit before I finally tell them what I think. That is if Gail will even tell me that she is now seeing women."

Steve shook his head as he watched his mom walk towards the elevators at the end of the hall. _That went better than I thought it would, _he thought as he walked back towards his desk.

As he sat down, his phone began to vibrate in his pants pocket. Rolling his eyes at his luck, he adjusted in the seat to dig the phone out of his pocket. "Peck," he said after he glanced at the caller ID.

_'I hope we didn't catch you during an interrogation, Steve.'_

"Not at all Collins," he replied as he picked up a pen from his blotter and started clicking the top. "Superintendent Peck just finished up on Gregory Schlenz. He mentioned that Jaime had a cabin out in Beaverton, but he claimed to not know the address. We can try to find out information on this cabin, but with it being the weekend, who knows if realtors will be working. I just wish we could get this guy..." Steve ran his hand through his blond hair and sighed. "If we could just get this guy off the street, maybe we could get a handle on the drug problem in the city. Every perp I've collared has always penned his or her supplier as this Jamie guy. I swear if I could only..."

_'I think we may have a lead for you.'_

"Wait what?" The detective sat up in his chair and dropped the pen on his desk.

"_I said I think we may have a lead for you.'_

"Shit, where?" Steve asked as he nearly jumped out of his seat. He reached for his jacket on the back of his chair and shrugged his left arm into the sleeve. "Nick you better not be joking."

_'It's no joke, man, but it is kind of a sticky situation.'_

"What do you mean by sticky situation?" Steve asked as he switched ears and shouldered his right arm into a sleeve.

_'It's complicated, but meet us at Epstein's apartment and we will explain when you get here. Oh, and Gail said to bring Traci.'_

"Okay. We'll be right there." Steve replied before ending the call and walking over to Nash's desk.

"What was that all about?" Traci asked as she stared at her boyfriend.

"It was Nick. Cryptic as hell, but he wants us at Epstein's place.

The female detective cocked an eyebrow_. _"Why does he want us to go there?"

Steve shrugged. "I don't know. He wouldn't say over the phone. All he said was that he may have a lead for us on the case. What kind of lead, I don't know, but I intend to find out."

"Who else is there?" Traci asked as she slipped her blazer off the back of her chair. "Did something happen to Chris? I know he was trying to figure where Diaz had went after yesterday evening."

"I don't think it has anything to do with Diaz..." Steve said with a frown. "He wouldn't call me about that. Besides, he said it was information on the case."

"Then why are we still here?" Traci asked as she opened the door and walked into the hall.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay! Another story has grabbed me by the throat and will rarely let me go! Was actually quite surprised that I was able to finish this chapter when I did; since it has been some time between the chapters, I will forego any further explanations. :)**_

* * *

"Shit!" Steve exclaimed as he ran his hands through his hair for what seemed like the millionth time that day. "Now, let me get this straight, Gail." He licked his lips as a way to calm his nerves before continuing. "You and Holly came here to pick up a few things of yours so you can stay at her house for a few days... at least until this case is over, right?"

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes before continuing. "I already told you this, Steve. We came here so I could pick up some clothes and my toothbrush so I could lie low until this whole thing blows over. I mean, mom won't let me back on this investigation because of my being trapped in that panic room for several hours, so I decided I would crash at Holly's until you guys close the case."

"I can understand that," her brother replied as he glanced over his shoulder to look at the scene in the next room. After he and Traci had arrived at the apartment, Dov and the rest of the group filled the two in on what Gail and Holly had found in Chris's room. During the conversation, Steve had stared at the closed door behind the group and waited intently until they had finished with the story. Only after they were finished did he asked to see the room. Once he had seen the cause for alarm did he call for the CSRU to thoroughly search the rest of the room.

It was the team in the room behind his sister that he was staring as he interrogated Gail. "Hello?! Earth to Steve!" Gail said as she waved her hand in front of her brother, shaking him out of his reverie.

"Sorry, I just can't believe all of this," he said as he wiped the sides of his mouth and shook his head.

"I can't either," Traci said softly as if anything louder would make the whole maddening situation become full-scale reality. "Now," the detective said more forcefully than she intended. "Are you guys sure that you didn't touch anything?"

"We've already told you, Traci," Chloe replied from against the wall. Her slouched posture and crossed arms, so uncharacteristic of her normal cheerful demeanour, spoke volumes to her lack of sleep and the utter weight of the situation ahead of all of them. "We didn't touch anything and we had already questioned Holly and Gail about the state of the room when they entered it."

"She's right," Nick added as rolled his shoulders to work out the kinks that had set up shop. "For good or ill, nothing has been altered. As proof, Holly showed us the pictures she took when they first entered the room. The timeline matches everything that they had told us and we even viewed the photos ourselves. Nothing was altered."

"We are going to need to confiscate your phone, Holly," Steve replied as glanced at the woman in question. In his opinion, she looked tired. _Well, I guess that being trapped in a room that was potentially dangerous could do that to a person, _he thought as he waited to take her phone.

Before she could pull it out of her purse, Gail placed a hand on Holly's arm. "Do you really need to do that, Steve? I mean this is ridiculous. You know us, we wouldn't bullshit you."

"It's okay, Gail," Holly responded as she took her phone out of her purse and handed it to the detective. "You know your brother is just doing his job. It's evidence. They need to make sure the timeline matches." She reached out for the blonde's hand and gave it a squeeze. "We have nothing to hide and this will allow them to hurry the case along. You know this. You would have done the same in his shoes."

Gail rolled her eyes and huffed. "I know," she admitted quietly as she glanced down at the floor in front of her; her hand still safely secured in the pathologist's. "I just wish this was over with." She shook her head and took a deep breath. "Do you guys know where that address leads to?"

Traci glanced up from her notes to stare at the blonde. "Gail..." she started before biting her lower lip.

The officer ran her hand through her short blonde hair. "Look, I'm not asking because I am going to go out of my way to hinder this investigation, Traci. God! Why would I? I want this ass-hole caught just like everyone else and I feel that Chris definitely needs to get the help he deserves after you guys find him, I'm just wondering why the address is near Beaverton? I know Chris loves fishing and all, but is this where he meets Jaime? And why would a drug dealer would meet someone so far out of the way."

Steve looked at his sister questioningly. "How did you know it was an address from Beaverton? We haven't even plugged it in yet to see what we are dealing with."

She rolled her eyes again at her brother and smiled. "You see... it is a marvellous invention called the internet that allows you to look up addresses with ease! Besides... look at the paper it was written on, it's from King's Bishop Pub."

"Shit," he muttered as he walked past his sister into Chris's room. Taking a look at a bag that a CSRU member was holding he let out another curse before stomping back into the room. "She's right," he said as he stared at Traci.

Gail smirked as she watched the interaction between the two detectives. "So, now that we know Steve's little sister isn't lying, can we please figure out what happened to our fellow officer?"

Steve ignored her comment and turned to look at Dov, Nick and Chloe. "I need you three to head back to Fifteen and let Oliver know what's going on. He will inform the Superintendent and hopefully she can pull some strings for us to have back-up over in Beaverton. After that, I suggest you all find some place to stay until we can release the scene."

"You guys can stay with me if you like," Nick suggested to Dov and Chloe as he glanced around the apartment. "Who knows how much longer it will be before you can come back. Hopefully, it won't be long, but until then, you are both welcome."

"That's alright," Dov replied with a sigh. "We'll just set up in a hotel until this blows over... don't want to inconvenience you, man."

"Have your way," Nick stated as he turned towards the door. "But the offer still stands if you can't find anything."

Steve watched as the three left the apartment, then his gaze turned towards the two women in front of him. "As for you two... I need you to go back to Holly's house and wait this out." He looked pointedly at Gail. "Mom said you were to stay out of this, and she means it. If this goes to trial, and the defence gets a hold of this; they could have a field day with it. They could say that we planted the evidence against their client and..."

"Okay, okay," Gail interrupted as she shook her head. "We get it. We'll lie low until this whole thing cools down."

"No more Nancy Drew moments?"

She narrowed her eyes at her brother for a moment then sighed. "No more Nancy Drew moments, I promise."

"Good, now go on and get out of here before Oliver or someone else decides to show up."

Holly waited until they were out of earshot from Traci and Steve before she asked, "Nancy Drew moments?"

Gail sighed before opening the car door and sliding into the seat. "It's just a dumb saying my brother used to say when we were little. I always tried to investigate every little thing when I was younger; like where did the tiny door in our basement lead to? Or what happened to our cat that one summer Steve and I stayed the week at our grandparents house? Just stupid stuff like that."

"I don't think it's stupid," Holly replied with a warm smile as she turned the key in the ignition and the car purred to life. "I think it's cute."

Gail rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well tell that to my mom. She always called me Nancy Drew and I had no idea who the hell that was until Steve explained it to me." She leaned her head against the window. "After that, he would joke around and say, _'Are you having one of your Nancy Drew moments?' _It used to aggravate me so much that I would stop what I was doing and ignore the overwhelming sensation of curiosity until I got to the point that I no longer cared what was going on around me."

"But something had to change that," Holly said softly as she glanced between the road and her lover. "After all, you became a cop."

"You're right. Something did change, but not at first. At first I did it because that was what was expected of me. My whole family is somehow connected to law enforcement, so I thought that was what I was supposed to do; but once I got into it, I saw what sort of life a lot of people lead and it angered me that there was so many people who were abused by others and I knew then that I needed to help." She reached over and slipped her hand into the pathologist's free hand. "And meeting you helped change me as well."

Holly quirked an eyebrow and glanced at the blonde. "What do you mean? How did I help?"  
Gail took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Her mind waging war against itself for the words that were about to come out of her mouth. "When you care for someone as much as I care for you, it changes you in ways you could never imagine." She scoffed then lowered her eyes to the floorboard. "I know it sounds crazy... but when I'm with you, I feel as though I need to make the world a better place for you. For myself. Basically for everyone that has ever felt the way I do about you."

Holly blushed slightly at the officer's admission, but still smirked as she glanced back over at Gail. "So, what do you feel for me, Officer Peck?" She started to laugh when she glanced at Gail's exasperated expression. "Oh, come on, Gail. You know you can't say something that sweet and not tell me what you feel for me! It's like a crime against nature or something."

Gail quirked her eyebrows in confusion. " _'A crime against nature or something?!' _Who are you and what did you do to Holly?"

Holly rolled her eyes and smirked. "You know what I mean... and don't try to get out of this! I asked you a question and I expect an answer."

"I love you," Gail mumbled softly.

"What?" Holly asked as she parked the car in front of her house."

Gail closed her eyes and sighed. "I said, I love you."

Holly sat dumbfounded as Gail fidgeted in her seat. The blonde rubbed her forehead and then reached for the door handle. "Shit..." She murmured as she tried to open the locked door. "Just forget I..."

The rest of her sentence was forgotten when Holly's lips crashed against hers. Their kiss grew more heated as Holly leaned further into the passenger-side. Only when the need for air and the beginnings of a muscle spasm in her neck became too great did the pathologist pull away from the blonde. Breathing heavily to catch her breath Holly stared at Gail. "I love you too," she whispered with a smile. "I'm sorry if I scared you before." She raised her hand to cup the other woman's cheek. "I... you just caught me off guard. I didn't know you felt the same as I did and it kind of startled me to hear you say those words."

Gail smiled softly as she leaned into Holly's palm. "It's okay... I was just afraid that..."

"That I didn't feel the same?"

"Yeah."

Holly grinned as she suddenly shifted in her seat and reached for the door handle to get out of the car. "So, now that we got that out of the way..." she said playfully when she realised that this was still new to Gail and that the blonde was still absorbing everything. "Why don't we go inside. After the last fort-eight hours we've had, I'm starving. How about you?"

Gail nodded her head as she got out of the car as well. "Yeah, I could go for something to eat too."

"Great, I know this great little Italian place that actually delivers. So, why don't you go and take a shower and I'll give them a call. By the time we are both showered and relaxed, dinner will be delivered."

As they reached the front door of Holly's house, Gail frowned slightly. "I think I might have a better idea."

The pathologist stuck her key in the door and gave a turn. "Really, I thought it was a pretty good idea, but let's hear your idea."

Gail licked her lips and smirked. "Well, how about we both take a shower, then we call the place _after _we are finished."

"Oh..." Holly blushed slightly at the suggestion as she promptly crossed the threshold. "I think you might have the better plan, Officer."

"Damn right I do, Doctor." She quickly, but passionately kissed Holly before closing the door behind them. "Now let's get out of these clothes. As you said before, it has been a long forty-eight hours."


End file.
